


Some Only Understand Lv

by UndynesSpear



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Ecto-Penis (Undertale), Ecto-Tongue (Undertale), Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, I'm sorry this was really stuck in my head, Medium Burn, Multi, Other, Polyamory, Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader may be named, Temperature Play, Theres a plot and everything holy shit, Voice Kink, Will Add More, theres not enough gaster fics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2020-07-29 18:35:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20086864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndynesSpear/pseuds/UndynesSpear
Summary: You watched the monster in fascination, not noticing how long you had stood there watching him passionately work. You shifted slightly, trying to get comfortable against the table and accidentally knocked the heavy album to the floor. You felt the tiny hairs on your skin stand up in fear at the loud noise in the silent room. You watched the monster in fear as he paused, calmly setting down his pen before standing and then he was looming over you, bright violet eye lights burning into your eyes as he appeared unnervingly close to your face, causing you to stumble and press yourself against the wall, the monster easily following, not giving you an inch. His hands carefully trapped you against the wall, boxing you in between his massive arms.“H̸̢̹̙̞̽̍̒m̵̢̛͕̣̟̌̓͑̍m̸̛̳̞̹̞̻̃̊̄͂͒͠m̵̛̟̠̟̄̌̿̅͘,̷̝͕̱̃ͅͅ ̸̿̑̐̅͜ṋ̶͔̲̼̖̗̎̇̽̚͘͠ọ̵͒w̶̎͑̓͐̑͜,̴̰̬͇͈̔͑̈́̈́̄̑̕͜ ̶̪͚̰̹̋h̷͚͉̐͛̓͊́̕͜ͅọ̷̡̔̅̕̚w̸͍͓̓̒ ̶̡̰̼̻̗͒̒d̷̰̞̠͌͗i̶͎̹͒̿̋́d̸͓̙̖̩̹̆͆̿̿͘̕ ̸̰̟͈̌̍̈̐͊͌͜͝ẏ̶̡̞̰͑̾͐͘o̴̢̩͖͖̝̦͐͆͊͜ŭ̶̹̩̔͝ ̴̧̡͖͍̝͗̀̅g̵̢̯̭̿̅̿̅͜ë̷̙͔͖̘́̂̚ͅt̸̖̬̑͠͠ ̵̢̈̀̆̾͐̑̋ỉ̷̙̣̀̑͐̉̈́̈́ņ̸̞̗̹͈̜̓̈́͜͠,̴̢͈̫̩͊̽ ̸̹̠͚͖̑͋̎͑͗͠m̴͓̤̺̻̆̓͋́̚y̷͕̩̽̌͊̒͂̕͜͠ ̶͇͚̖͔̯̲̆̈̚Ḑ̴̡̼͉̟̊̅͒͌ě̸̼͉̯͇̿͒̽͆̑̚͜ͅä̸̛̭̮̘̯̤̜̪́̾̉r̶̬̬͖̹̭͙͕̽͐́͝?̸̱̺̖̱̱͓̿́̇̚





	1. A-Voided

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't hurt me!  
Guys I had an idea and I went with it.  
Not sure how often this will be updated but I do have a for sure plot in mind for this one.

You whimpered as you gently palpated your ankle, with teary eyes you looked up the incline you has slipped down. If you hadn’t messed up your ankle when you slipped you probably could have made it back up it with just some minor difficulty. You huffed and stretched your leg out, untying the laces on your hiking boots. At least you had worn sensible clothing and shoes, unlike some of the other people on the tour. You thought with some bitterness as you went about lacing the injured foot tight so hopefully you would be at least able to walk, it was going to be a while before the group noticed you were missing. You grit your teeth as you drew the laces tight across your ankle, not quite managing to stifle the small cry of pain.

You leaned back on your pack, you skull throbbing in time with your injured ankle. At least the view was pretty, and the underground doesn’t have wild animals and monsters don’t attack humans. Yeah, turns out the stuff of some people’s nightmares would sooner give you the food out of their mouths than ever harm a human. Trapped underground for so long monsters learned to appreciate life, HoPe was at an all-time low but instead of driving them to madness like it would have humans, they grew even closer, becoming more like a very  _ very _ large family. You rubbed your forehead absently, the throbbing easing a bit in your skull. You wished you had a family like that, you had a few friends but you felt like they could take you or leave you. You didn’t really understand, you shared a lot of common interests, usually went along with their schemes, and when you didn’t you left them to it with an amused grin. They invited you over, but not as often as they hung out without you, you had to admit, it stung a bit, but you let it go. You moved to start fresh in a way, far enough away to where you didn’t know anyone, but close enough for your friends and family to visit once in a while.

You opened your phone, already knowing there was no service this far below the surface and with all the magic in the air is scambled those sorts of signals and you hadn’t gotten an undernet card for your phone to allow it to connect to the grid powered by the CORE. They were so fucking expensive, mostly because if you weren’t a tourist you were a scientist of some sort studying the CORE otherwise humans weren’t allowed down here. The scientists could  _ definitely  _ afford the cards, not that they needed to, you were sure they got them from the government at the taxpayers expense (i/e you). You selected a playlist as you tested you ankle, which gave an immediate twang of pain.  _ Okay, guess I’ll chill here. _ You rooted around in a pocket of your bag for a granola bar and some water, taking a couple bites and some small sips just in case.

A couple hours pass as you hum along to the songs on your phone, listening to the gentle rushing of the waterfalls around you, hearing them crash somewhere  _ far _ below. You were glad you had just slid from one plateau to another and not to your watery demise. You were close enough to the path you were sure someone would notice you or you them, you still glanced up periodically, just in case. You weren’t really surprised no one from the group had noticed you were gone yet, you  _ had _ come alone and were walking towards the back, wanting to take in the sights and not lose your footing, you rolled your eyes at yourself. You had moved to Mt. Ebott due to the low rent costs bluntly. Ironically it was tourism hotspot but no one actually wanted to live there, and its not because of the mass volumes of people. Its because most of the population of this town and the surrounding area were monster kind. Humans were still mistrustful racists, fearful of what they don’t understand while sticking their heads in the sand, refusing to try.

A kind Nice Cream man who set up his cart near you building had given you the tour voucher, after asking if you lived here or just visiting. He said it was a really nice tour run by one of his friends BP. You had found the cat monster relatable frankly, his dry, self-deprecating humor, though making others uncomfortable, had made you chuckle a few times which made him grin at you a few times. You had talked with him when the group paused in a particular room or area to allow people to explore or take pictures. He complained about the fact that he was tsill trapped under here working for the same shitty hunk of metal as he was before, but now he had to walk fucking miles on his aching paws every day! You had told him you bet his partner appreciated how fit it probably kept him. The cat monster had stuttered and blushed, managing to stammer out that he was single and not sure if he wanted to mingle yet. You had ribbed him a bit further telling him you had found monster blushes super cute.

BP had sworn he had lost one of his few remaining lives Mettaton hadn’t wrung out of him prior to the barrier shattering when the cute human girl had started talking to him. He was sure he would mess it up, but then she had complimented his body and called him cute and he just melted. It had left him in a daze through the rest of the tour, as they entered the throne room he darted his eyes around looking for you, his whiskers drooping as the last few humans filtered through the grand archway. Where were you? Maybe you were just laging behind, he would just go check really quick, humans spent fucking  _ forever _ in the stupid throne room after  _ oohing and ahhhing _ at the Judgement Hall, not realizing how many brutal murders had taken place there recently and even years before the barrier had been errected.  _ Who knows? Humans are fucking sick, kill each other fo fun, some might even get off on the thought. _ BP shuddered as he stepped back into the creepy hall after informing the group he would be right back and to stay in the room, he glanced up at the stained glass windows, somehow giving the room the illusion of warm sunlight coming through the glass. He felt nothing but the weight of years of icy death clinging to the room as he bravely marched through in search of the pretty human with the warm smile.

You stood gingerly on your ankle, the rest and binding making it bearable but not to the point where you would be able to climb back up the path. You huffed after looking up at the incline behind you before shuffling towards the edge of the plateau, seeing nothing but water spray and darkness you sighed, resigned to waiting for help when you heard and odd sound behind you. Almost like, a door opening? You turned carefully to see, well, an open door, not sure what else you expected. Other than the fact it seemed to open into the small clifface you slipped down. You firmed your lips into the classic  _ nope _ face as the darkness inside almost seemed to reach towards you, so dark it seemed to go on forever, vantablack, void black. The longer you stood frozen the less fear you seemed to feel, something felt familiar about it. Your shoulders finally relaxed and you took a step closer, a small prick of light seemed to appear in the void of the doorway. You squinted and a whole fucking room popped into existance on the other side of the door like some goddamn Room of Requirement or something.

You felt a throb in your twisted ankle as your surprise caused you to take a hasty step backwards. You shook your head at yourself and stepped forwards again carefully, slowly peering through the doorway. A sparse white and gray octagonal room, about 50 feet in diameter, high ceilings. Windows high up on the walls, blinding light filtering in, but it somehow felt cold despite its cheery light. There were scraps of classic blue drafting paper and sheets of scribbled notes strewn about the surfaces, some torn or shredded, balled and crushed, others were kept pristine. You wandered carefully into the room, picking up on of the few mildly crumpled blueprints near your feet. You screwed up your face as you smoothed it out, twisting it until it appeared right side up, it was some sort of machine, sketches of gears in the margins as a vague cube shape with tubes had been viciously crossed out with black ink, harsh contrast to the white ink used on the rest of the plans. Notes had been made in the margins, some scribbled over by the black in. Some seemed almost typed to the page with how precise the letters where, the more legible pieces appeared to have been written in that odd wingdings font.

You shrugged, placing the paper on a nearby desk as you glanced through,  _ Using wingdings makes sense,  _ You thought,  _ most people can’t read that font at a glance _ . You shifted through a few more papers, not finding much of interest or clues as to the owner of this room. You saw a bed, immaculately made and  _ very _ large, much like most of the furniture around here, confirming it to be a monster’s room. Monster’s had been surprised when the came out from the underground to find humans had shrunk in their eyes. Apparently humans used to be about the same height as most monsters, the royal scientist had a theory that it was the lack of magic in the atmosphere after the past zealots had used all the humans had to seal the monsters away. Many humans had died that day, monsters weren’t the only ones who survived on magic. The Children of Dust had claimed not only monster lives that day to fuel their own cruel agenda but innocent human mages as well.

Humans were quick to point fingers after the news of the children slain after having fallen into the underground, others were quick to point out we sent our children to die every day for less. You paused as you came to a photo album on the bedside table, the only other spot of color in the room besides the drafting paper. It was a deep royal purple, the delta rune emblazoned in gold foil in the front. The cover was worn in a few spots, no doubt where hands had touched it fondly over the years. You carefully opened the large book, taking in each photo of a smiling face or familiar location of the underground, there were a few of the surface it seemed from a long time ago, the photos faded in black and white. You didn’t recognize any of the faces in particular as you carefully looked through the book, you didn’t imagine you would as some of these photos were rather old and you had only been in town for a short while. As you were about to flip to the last few pages you heard the sound of a door opening again, this time it was more of a slow creep, the harsh coldness that the light gave you seemed to brush around you as the door opened fully.

You jumped and turned, hands paused in front of you as you waited to see who would come through the door. You heard sharp, careful measured footsteps, followed by the odd  _ drip _ sound. A large shape appeared in the doorway, the door itself seeming to stretch to accommodate the large frame of the monster. You subconsciously took another step back, pressing yourself against the table. You weren’t really afraid, monsters were nice after all, this one was just so huge! You felt like you needed to make space for them in the massive room, considering you were technically trespassing. They stepped into the light through the door and wandered over to a desk nearby, not seeming to notice your still form across the room. A pair of bone-white disembodied hands closed the door behind them. Your eyes were wide as you took in  _ his _ , decidedly, form. He was tall, maybe rivalled the King himself, but he seemed thin and fit where the King had major Dad-bod going on, not that you had a preference.  _ Why the fuck does it matter what I think about their  _ ** _bodies_ ** ,  _ where the hell did that thought come from? _ You flushed deeply as you continued to take in the monster across from you, still seemingly unaware of your presence. He wore a black lab coat, slacks and loafers, his turtleneck sweater a dove gray and looking as soft as a feather, your fingers itched to feel the material to confirm your suspicions.

He finally collapsed in a chair in front of his drafting table, shoving his face in his hands, the back of his head was smooth and white, he seemed to melt a little in place as he sighed deeply, the sound oddly slightly distorted but gave a hint to the deep voice you’re sure he had. He rubbed his face a few times in frustration before sitting up, the hands from before grabbing blank paper, fountain pens and inks from various spots around the room blindly. You mentally shrugged, you could understand organized chaos, it was something your mother never understand however, and still bothered you about even now that you lived on your own. You watched the monster in fascination, not noticing how long you had stood there watching him passionately work. You shifted slightly, trying to get comfortable against the table and accidentally knocked the heavy album to the floor.

You felt the tiny hairs on your skin stand up in fear at the loud noise in the silent room. You watched the monster in fear as he paused, calmly setting down his pen before standing and then he was looming over you, bright violet eyelights burning into your eyes as he appeared unnervingly close to your face, causing you to stumble and press yourself against the wall, the monster easily following, not giving you an inch. His hands carefully trapped you against the wall, boxing you in between his massive arms.

**“H̸̢̹̙̞̽̍̒m̵̢̛͕̣̟̌̓͑̍m̸̛̳̞̹̞̻̃̊̄͂͒͠m̵̛̟̠̟̄̌̿̅͘,̷̝͕̱̃ͅͅ ̸̿̑̐̅͜ṋ̶͔̲̼̖̗̎̇̽̚͘͠ọ̵͒w̶̎͑̓͐̑͜,̴̰̬͇͈̔͑̈́̈́̄̑̕͜ ̶̪͚̰̹̋h̷͚͉̐͛̓͊́̕͜ͅọ̷̡̔̅̕̚w̸͍͓̓̒ ̶̡̰̼̻̗͒̒d̷̰̞̠͌͗i̶͎̹͒̿̋́d̸͓̙̖̩̹̆͆̿̿͘̕** ** _ ̸̰̟͈̌̍̈̐͊͌͜͝ẏ̶̡̞̰͑̾͐͘o̴̢̩͖͖̝̦͐͆͊͜ŭ̶̹̩̔͝_ ** ** ̴̧̡͖͍̝͗̀̅g̵̢̯̭̿̅̿̅͜ë̷̙͔͖̘́̂̚ͅt̸̖̬̑͠͠ ̵̢̈̀̆̾͐̑̋ỉ̷̙̣̀̑͐̉̈́̈́ņ̸̞̗̹͈̜̓̈́͜͠,̴̢͈̫̩͊̽ ̸̹̠͚͖̑͋̎͑͗͠m̴͓̤̺̻̆̓͋́̚y̷͕̩̽̌͊̒͂̕͜͠ ̶͇͚̖͔̯̲̆̈̚Ḑ̴̡̼͉̟̊̅͒͌ě̸̼͉̯͇̿͒̽͆̑̚͜ͅä̸̛̭̮̘̯̤̜̪́̾̉r̶̬̬͖̹̭͙͕̽͐́͝?̸̱̺̖̱̱͓̿́̇̚** ” You flinched slightly, his deep voice growly and hard to understand. You peered into the eyelights an inch from your face, they didn’t seem particularly menacing. You tried to speak and cleared your throat, he leaded back a bit, either to avoid your spit or give you some room as you hadn’t screamed or tried to run away. He found it odd you had been in his presence for so long and he hadn’t noticed you, he assumed you must have been in the room before he had arrived. You had held still for a very long time, and it didn’t seem to be out of fear. He took a subtle scenting of the human woman in front of him, and his eyelights expanded slightly. He took a deeper breath, resisting his urge to taste your skin to get a better idea of what he was smelling. Most of his scent glands per se were in his mouth, unlike most monsters who had a nose so he got most of his scent information from taste. But he knew most humans found it rude so he sniffed, trying to be subtle.

“Um, I’m sorry for uh basically being in your house.” You took in more of the monster’s features now that he seemed preoccupied with something by your neck. “I uh fell down a small cliff and hurt my ankle, I was waiting for the tour group to come back through to rescue me but then this door appeared and opened for me. I’m really sorry for just wandering in, I assume this is your room? I’m really sorry, I’ll leave.” You stammered out as his eyelights sharpened on your face again, the grin on his face becoming less sharp and becoming a bit more relaxed.

**"̸̲̜̚T̴͕̻̊͑è̸͓͌l̴̖͝ļ̷͉̀̓ ̸̼̚m̴̛̻̻ḗ̶̥,̸̮̠̊ ̵͓̥͝m̷̢̈́̇y̶̟͙͐̉ ̷̦̔͘D̵̦̓e̵̩͐a̵͔͗r̵͈͌,̷̪ ̴̰̌̏w̷̲̋ḥ̴̠̌a̷̜͎͐̾t̵͚̍̂ ̶͎́y̶̟̔e̴͓̱͌̂a̷̪̠͝r̶̯̿͋ ̶͔̈́͒i̷͈̓̑s̸̱̝̈́̔ ̵̟̥͊ȋ̴̯t̵̬͆͝?̶̻̯̄̊"̵̮̹͆̊** He was a bit easier to understand this time, especially since he was far enough back that you could read his lips, allowing you to properly take in his features. “Uh, August of 2019.” He leaned back farther, his mouth almost completely closing in shock. The whole right side of his face looked like it had slightly melted downwards though it didn’t seem to affect his expressions. A crack ran up from his eye socket on his right and down on the opposite side, the violet of his eye lights dimmed to a more pure white, his grin seemed permanent, like he could never quite close his mouth much like the skeleton-like monster he seemed to be. His skeletal grin was slightly turned down in a contemplative frown as he stood up to his full towering height, a disembodied skeletal hand with a hole through the center appeared to rub his chin in thought. His attached hands slide from the wall, one being offered to you from where you had slid to the ground. You eyed the hand, skeletal with a hole through the hand much like the ones still floating about the room. You took it and were surprised to feel a gentle warmth much like any human hand. He gently pulled you to your feet,  **"̴H̵m̴m̸,̵ ̶i̵t̷ ̴h̶a̸s̵ ̷b̴e̵e̶n̸ ̶a̴ ̴l̴o̴n̸g̴ ̴t̸i̴m̵e̶ ̸s̴i̸n̷c̴e̴ I̷ '̴v̸e̵ ̵h̶a̵d̸ ̸c̶o̸m̸p̷a̴n̴y̶,̵ ̶d̶o̶ ̵f̷o̶r̴g̷i̶v̵e̶ ̶m̷e̴,̶ ̷m̸y̷ ̴D̶e̴a̵r̸.̵ ̴I̶ ̷a̷p̸p̷e̴a̷r̷ ̷t̴o̵ ̴h̵a̵v̷e̷ ̷f̸o̵r̵g̸o̷t̵t̴e̵n̷ ̷m̷y̵ ̵m̸a̶n̶n̴e̴r̸s̷.̶"̶** He gently shook the hand that was still grasped in his large one.  **“I am Doctor Wingdings Gaster, pleasure to meet you, my Dear.”** His smile was charming, a bit crooked at the corner where it was slightly drooped but it seemed to add to his character in a way. He gently pulled his hand away before folding his arms behind his back. ** “If I had known I was going to be having such a lovely guest like yourself I would have tidied up, I apologize.”**

You knew you had to be tomato red, phew, this monster knew how to turn you into a puddle in fear  _ and  _ with charm, very dangerous. You introduced yourself awkwardly and apologized again for breaking into his room on accident. He waved away your concerns with slick grin,  **“Now my Dear, I’m never one to turn away a beautiful lady from my bedroom.”** He said with a teasing grin after he noticed your blush, just embarrassing you further causing you to growl at him, getting more annoyed as you realized you’re standing right next to the massive bed in question.

“Seriously Dr. Gaster, I’m starting to doubt the phd, never met a doctor so crude.” That wasn’t true at all, doctors were huge perverts no matter what field you work in, most just knew how to behave like normal people. He let out a deep laugh at your expression before gliding across the room, his smoky whiskey-like scent following him to a small bar cart as he poured an amber liquid from a crystal decanter before wandering towards the small sitting area. He gave you a friendly smile from one of the chairs, gesturing with a hand toward the other. You sighed, acting put upon before limping slightly across the room to take a seat, having to hop awkwardly into the large chair a bit, much to his amusement. You scowled at him, rubbing your sore ankle slightly, still bound in your boots, wow, it was going to hurt when you took that off. Gaster frowned as he saw you rubbing at your injured leg, from what he remembered humans took direct damage to body parts instead of through the soul outside an encounter. He fished around in his lab coat,  ** _now where.. Aha!_ ** He pulled a small brightly wrapped sucker from his lab coat and offered it to you. You looked at him quizzically.  **“Is is Monster Candy, it will help with your ankle.”** You nodded at him, having seen the absurdly expensive monster treat in a local grocery store back in your old town.

“Thank you,” you said quietly, taking the cady from him, flushing slightly as his warm fingers brushed yours. You unwrapped the deep violet candy and popped it in your mouth, fiddling with the stick as it slowly dissolved in your mouth, leaving a fizzing feeling behind which travelled towards your ankle, sending a gentle warmth through it causing you to sigh in relief. He smiled at you gently, crossing his legs at the knee as he took a careful sip of his tumbler, humming at the taste. Once the candy had fully dissolved you pocketed the stick and absently took a small sip from the tumbler, the whiskey about as smooth as you expected, if not more so, warmth settling in your stomach as it faded from your now healed ankle. “So again, sorry for barging in, I don’t usually wander into random people’s homes.” You refused to look up from your glass. He chuckled smoothly, his finger gently tracing the rim of his glass, making it sing.

**“Come now, my Dear, all is forgiven, I honestly don’t mind, I haven’t had company of any sort for many years.” **You finally looked up at him to see a warm smile, arms folded in his lap while two disembodied hands grasped his glass carefully as he regarded you. You flushed again under his stare, not many guys like him wanted to spend any amount of time with a woman like you. He was charming intelligence wrapped in fine clothing and you were, well, you. That wasn’t really your thing, too much pressure to be someone else, you didn’t mind chatting with him but it wasn’t going further than that. _Bit conceited, thinking he’d be into you at all. Shut up intrusive thoughts, you’re an asshole._ **“Ten** **G for your thoughts, quite the expression you have there.” **Your eyes flicked towards his, hearing the humor in his voice. He was grinning smugly at you, enjoying how flustered he seemed to make you.

Something about you, this human woman who just  _ walked in _ to his personal hell like she was calling upon an old friend, made him want to learn more. He was  _ fascinated _ and somehow he knew it wasn’t just because he hadn’t seen another soul in decades. At first he thought you were another cruel trick from his fractured mind, and then he was horrified when he realized you were  _ real _ , the  _ implications _ . Part of him was horrified at the thought you would be doomed to a life trapped in this hell with him, if you knew what sort of disgusting creature you shared conversation with you would be clawing through the walls to escape. The other part of him however selfishly sobbed in relief, he wasn’t  _ alone _ anymore, and from what little time he had spent with you so far he felt his teeth ready to sink in and keep you here with him. Luckily his mind hadn’t completely left him and he knew you would never willingly stay with a  <strike> horrid creature </strike> man like himself. After all the things he’s done, hiding behind the King’s hastily made decrees, pretending it was for the good of monster kind when it was really just to satisfy his own sick sense of curiosity. At least two decent things had come out of his misdeeds, he absently touched the hole in his left hand, smiling fondly thinking of a short skeleton who had his own propensity for bad jokes but he fortunately had a clear moral compass and a lanky babybones with his insatiable curiosity tempered with kindness,  ** _He must be grown by now…_ **

You grinned at the large monster as he himself seemed to become lost in thought, just after teasing you about it, you know what they say about stones in glass houses. He had a small smile on his face, at least they were pleasant thoughts. “Ah, nothing much really,” You said quickly, his grin turned sly once more as he surfaced from his own thoughts. “What about you? You got lost there too!” He snickered softly, leaning back from you, placing a fist under his jaw, regarding you from his lidded eyes.  _ Oh no, he has a smoulder, fuck _ . You thought back to an old public speaking trick when you wanted to avoid looking someone in the eye, just look at their ear instead, nothing sexy about an ear right? That should keep you safe from the strangely attractive skeleton monster’s looks. You stop as your gaze reaches the side of his tilted head, you are a fucking idiot,  _ skeleton  _ monsters don’t have goddamn ears.  _ Welp, I’m out of ideas, guess I’ll just get smouldered to death, worse ways to go to be honest. _

Gaster watched you struggle with your thoughts, since he didn’t have a subtle way of scenting you like most monsters had it was hard to tell exactly what had you so flustered but he could guess.  **“I was just thinking of some… friends I haven’t seen in a very long time.” ** You smiled at him, it felt like the long forgotten rays of sunshine he had once felt on his bones, made him feel whole again.  **“So, am I right to assume the barrier is no more?”** Your face screwed up cutely in minor confusion as you pondered his question before seeming to remember he had said he hadn’t seen anyone else in a long time. “Uh, yeah, some kid named Frisk helped take it down I think about six years ago now.” You had never met the ambassador, they had hardly left their adoptive mother’s sight once they had come to the surface. Gaster seemed a bit at a loss after you answered his question, looking off towards his desk littered with his notes and plans. He wasn’t quite sure what he was feeling, decades of his life dedicated to that task and a single human child had managed to do it in so little time. He remembered meeting Frisk recently, or maybe it was thousands of years ago, he was never quite sure anymore. The kid had spoken in broken Hands to him, insisting that they would find a way to free him from the prison of his own making.

He had shook his head sadly at the child, who’s eyes burned with the bright crimson of Determination. He had once thought Determination was the answer, if the monsters could somehow recreate Determination he was sure it could overpower the magic in the barrier. But just as he had completed the machine, he had made a costly mistake, ending up tossed into the emptiest part of the void. He had been lost there, wandering aimlessly in the emptiness until he found a gray door. Frisk had signed a few more words that Gaster couldn’t quite understand with finality before dashing back through the door with a cheerful wave. The monster had honestly thought the child some hallucination, throwing more of his mistakes in his face, he knew he deserved it, after all he had done. He wasn’t sure how to feel knowing the child was real.

You frowned at the defeated look on the doctor’s face, opening your mouth to say something you heard the squeak of a door and the faint roar of rushing water. Gaster blinked and came back to himself at the sound, though quiet, was utterly deafening in the silent room. He peered off behind himself at the ajar gray door, having appeared on the opposite wall from the one he entered through. He stared at the door a moment longer before standing, offering his hand to you again, helping you stand.  **“Well, my Dear, it appears our time is up.” ** He wanted to smooth the little furrow that appeared between your brow but refrained, he was sure you found his ruined visage repulsive anyway. From what he remembered of humans, most were concerned with physical beauty, admittedly some could see the beauty of the soul but it was too much to hope that you would be one of those humans.

No, he would not force his cursed existence upon you, it wasn’t often the void allowed something to  _ leave _ . The void was greedy, it wanted to swallow  _ everything _ , it rarely gave anything up without a vicious fight, and even then you never truly won. Gaster refrained from touching his chest where his mangled and cracked soul resided, his eye lights dimming slightly. Even if you were one of those rare humans who saw a person's soul before their physical appearance you would never want the blighted scraps left in his chest.  **“I truly thank you for staying a while. It was nice having someone to speak with.”** At the end of the day, Gaster was only a man, a weak man. He gently pressed his mouth to the back of your still captive hand in a kiss, giving you a wink when you blushed and stuttered before returning to his full height, making you crane your neck with how close he stood.

“Ah, n-no problem Dr. Gaster, I could visit m-maybe if you like?” You then frowned, realizing it might be difficult for you to get back down here, and even if you did manage via the tour group again they would be awfully suspicious if you disappear each time you came for a trip. There was a very narrow chance you would be able to safely navigate the underground, especially since it was so empty these last few years. Gaster chuckled warmly, one of his sockets closed in a teasing grin.

**“Of course I would never say no to a gorgeous woman, but ** ** _atlas_ ** **, you might find it difficult to ** ** _map_ ** ** out my location.”** You let out a surprised snort of laughter at the terrible puns, his eye lights seemed to sparkle as you laughed. The rushing of the waterfalls grew louder, the door opening further the closer you walked. “Wingdings, those were fucking awful.” His booming laugh filled the room as you both paused at the door. He smiled gently down at you, he raised his hand, poised to lay it against your cheek. You held your breath, eyes wide. The roar of the waterfalls grew louder as he leaned close, shifting his hand from your cheek to your hair- You blinked, hearing a somewhat familiar voice calling your name.

Turning towards the door, Gaster’s hand slipped from your hair regretfully. A small sense of shame filled him as you glanced toward the wide open door, of course you had someone. Gaster could hear the worry in the males voice and something dark in him  _ growled _ , a part he silenced with years of his mistakes and shame. You turned back to the tall monster sadly, “I really will visit, it might be difficult, but I’ll come back.” You lips quirked in a flirty grin, “Or, maybe you could visit me sometime.” A delicate flush spread over your face, almost like you couldn’t believe you said that (you really couldn’t). You darted forward quickly and wrapped your arms around the waist of the monster, your face pressing into the  _ absurdly _ soft sweater he wore under his lab coat. Gaster’s many hands froze, hovering over the body of the human woman now pressed against him, her tiny face pressed just below his sternum.  _ He smells so good, okay let go creepy, he isn't even hugging you back, probably wondering why this gross human infant is touching him. _ And then you felt his arms come around your carefully, you buried your face in his chest as yours erupted in flames.  **“You know, that shade of red on your face reminds me of a bartender I used to know.” ** The rumbling of his voice pleasant against your ear. You made a weird grunting sound and pushed away from the man, looking like you were trying not to smile, face two shades darker than before.

“Ugh, I’m leaving.” Gaster let out another deep laugh as you stalked through the door, easily hearing BP calling for you, sounding like he was about to pass by where you slipped. You glanced back, Gaster waved, shooting you a smoldering wink as the door swung shut.


	2. Dishes Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You finish the tour, learn a bit more about the war, and how the barrier came to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support you guys! I really appreciate it!
> 
> Also I drew Gaster  
https://undynesspear.tumblr.com/post/186833190711/its-okay-he-just-wants-to-e

Gaster’s smile slipped from his face as the door closed, his hands dropping to his sides, his whole form drooping slightly. He closed his eyes for a moment, the silence of the void deafening, morso now that you had left, taking with you the life, the  _ touch _ he had been starved of for decades. It was almost cruel, he still wasn’t quite sure if his own mind had conjured you to stave off his loneliness or not, honestly he had lost his mind long before becoming one with the void, so there was no saving that. He opened his eyes as he turned towards his bed, he no longer required sleep, but it broke up the monotony and gave him a sense of time passing.

As he reached his bedside, he started to remove his coat when his foot nudged something lying on the floor. He paused, glancing down, seeing the album you knocked off the table earlier when he cornered you. One of his many conjured hands carefully lifted the album and placed it back on the nightstand. Gaster stroked a finger down the page it was open to, it was one of the last photos he ever took. He gently pulled the old photo from its place amongst the others, his mouth turned down in a small frown, his eyes drooped.

He gazed fondly at the stocky-looking skeleton, clothed in black basketball shorts, a plain white tee, and a sky blue hoodie, the wool-lined hood pulled up over his round skull, eyelights turned up in laughter, his natural grin spread wide in delight while he was holding a smaller skeleton who had an enraged expression on his face. The expression on the youngest skeleton’s face made him chuckle fondly. The smaller skeleton was dressed in a red parka, the hood was down and lined with dark brown fur, he wore red earmuffs (which honestly just made it harder for him to hear and did nothing for warmth), the collar of his orange turtleneck poked out, a bit too big for him yet.

Gaster sighed, his form becoming increasingly viscous the more he dwelled on his failures,  _ all _ his failures. He placed the photo back where it belonged with a bitter smile before gently closing the album, sending one of his many hands to place it with the others on the bookshelf across the room. Turning back towards his desk he paused mid-stride, his head snapped to the side, looking at the wall where you had left ten minutes ago.  _ The door was still there. _

“Glad you didn’t get hurt too bad, buddy.” You smiled at the cat monster as you both walked along the path through the underground, BP was still kind enough to tell you about the rooms as you passed, though you’re sure to was the last thing he wanted to do. Having to say the same shit every day was enough to drive anyone batty. 

“Yeah, I’m lucky it was just a little sprain, its much better now. I just figured it was better I stay there and wait for someone so i didn’t get lost.” He nodded with you in agreement, his paws loosely tucked in the front pockets of his jeans. He reached into his back pocket and fished out a square box. He tapped out a slim cigarette-like object, pausing as he caught your eye. “Mind if I smoke?” You shake your head and he lit the end, exhaling a greenish smoke which smelled vaguely herbal, not a bad smell to be honest unlike human cigarettes. “Boss’d declaw me if he found out I was havin’ a ‘nip on the job, even if the bastard is the one who sells ‘em.” You caught the label on the front of the carton as he stashed it away again; “ _ MTT BRAND CATNIPETTES” _ .

You absently listened to BP as he complaned more about his boss, you didn’t have to listen too closely as it was mostly a rehash from before. You pondered the man you met in the strange white room, you hoped you could see him again someday. You rubbed your chest absently, you felt a coldness forming, like when you drink a slushie too fast. You really weren’t a hugger, so you’re not sure what made you want to wrap your arms around a perfect stranger, except. He didn’t  _ feel _ like a stranger, he felt like someone you had known for years and had just seen him again after he had been gone for a long time, he felt  _ familiar _ . The way he had squeezed you back had felt safe and genuine and not as stiff and awkward it should have been.

Surely he was glad you were gone, dirt-covered, creepy, chubby human girl feeling him up, you’d be looking for a door to shove you through too. Regardless of his insistence you were welcome in his room (home?), you were sure he was just being polite. You glanced back the way you came, as if he would suddenly appear. “Hey, buddy?” You looked back at BP absently as he tossed the butt of his smoke on the ground before stomping it out with his paw, not indicating the action of bare embers on his pads painful. “You lookin’ for someone?” Your brow creased slightly and you tilted your head.

“No, why?” His ear twitched slightly as he looked at you a bit skeptically. “Well, ya haven’t gone a minute without checking behind you like someones gonna grab ya.” You opened your mouth to deny when he continued, “Also I asked you about five minutes ago what you thought of the Echo Flowers and you just said ‘uh huh’.” You flushed deeply and faced him fully, he had a slight smirk curling his lip, arms crossed as he waited for your response.

“Ah well… Okay I met someone.” Bp felt himself deflate internally as he watched you fidget under his scrutiny, a cute flush staining your face as you seemed to want to look anywhere else but directly at him.  _ Ah, whoever it is, is one lucky fuck. _ He admired the way the deep red of the lava lighting the large cavern made your hair glitter a deep firey ruby, and gave your cheeks and even rosier glow as you stalled for time. The cat monster was patient, and curious of course, who ever heard of a cat monster who wasn’t the curious sort. Though he will admit he was usually too curious for his own good, which is why the whiskers on the left side his face were a bit haggard compared to the right side. Stuck his nose in at the wrong time, though he felt this was a pretty safe mystery to solve, even if his soul felt stomped on. He started to tap his foot and raised a brow at you when you finally looked at him. “After I fell, I uh saw a gray door on the face of the cliff. I may have accidentally broken into his house.” You looked back at the cat monster to see both his brows raised.

“Well, the door opened on its own when I got closer. I hadn’t been in there long when a really tall male monster came through another door on the other side of the room.” BP leaned against the cave wall after pressing the elevator button. “Sooooo, you just wandered around this guys house and he we okay with that? I mean, we monsters are pretty friendly but uh, a B and E is still a thing.” You twisted your hands as you stepped into the elevator.

“I know, he seemed really surprised I was there. And not just the ‘ _ oh, a random human female is in my room without my prior knowledge _ ’ sort of way. He didn’t seem to know what to say when I told him the door just seemed to open for me.” You readjusted your bun, still overheated from the trip through Hotland. “I told him I would leave immediately and I apologized but he said he didn’t mind at all, but I feel like he was maybe trying to placate the clearly insane human who broke into his house.” BP chuckled as he jabbed a button on the panel blindly.

“So, did this guy give ya a name or somethin?” He leaned back against the metal wall as you braced your hands against the rail, the elevator smoothly climbing the floors. You nodded, remembering the odd name, if anyone else had given it to you you would think it was a joke.

“Uh, Gaster I think, Doctor Wingdings Gaster.” The cat monsters face screwed up in confusion, there were very few monsters he didn’t know, and even fewer he didn’t even know their name and that one was odd enough he would have remembered it. Especially if the monster was a doctor like you said. Maybe he was a doctor under Dr. Alphys?

“Huh, not often I don’t recognize a name, what's he look like?” You paused as a soft ding announce your arrival to the next floor. The door slid open and you followed the cat monster into the much cooler hallway. “Um, like I said, really tall, maybe King Asgore tall.” BP whistled, standing at 6’3 himself, he was one of the shorter monsters, that would put the guy at almost eight feet tall. “Yeah, I barely come up to the bottom of his ribs.” You hurried on before he could question how you know that, “He had on a black lab coat and slacks with a dove gray turtleneck sweater. I think he was some sort of skeleton monster? He had a crack from each of his sockets going opposite directions and perfect holes in his palms.” BP made a face, imagining holes in his own palms. “He was really well spoken, and kind.” You flushed again, remembering the feeling of his arms around you. “I don’t think he's left that place in a long time, he didn’t seem to know the barrier was broken, or even what year it was.”

“Really?” BP paused outside the second elevator, you looked around absently. “Well, maybe he's one of those really old powerful monsters.” You gave him a questioning glance as the door slid shut on the second elevator and he punched another button. “It sounds like he might be a Boss Monster, they're usually much larger than any of the other monsters and live much longer. It's very possible he just lost track of time, easy to do when you can live for millenia.” Your eyes widened in surprise, you knew monsters could live for a long time having been trapped underground for as long as they were but this was something else. “I still don’t remember any gray door or house around there, but who knows, maybe he kept it hidden with magic usually and somehow you managed to see it, not unusual for more private monsters.” The doors slid open again and you paused, the chill in your chest increased slightly as you stepped into the sunny-looking hallway. High arched ceilings with stained glass windows depicting the Delta Rune let in cold, filtered light, elegant columns lined the pale yellow walls and checkered, polished floors.

BP noticed as you went silent and followed suit, he took in your furrowed brow and the downward bend in your lips and you stared at one of the windows. Most humans would be gushing about the  _ beautiful architecture _ and  _ gorgeous stained glass _ and how  _ impressive _ it was that  _ monsters _ had built something so beautiful. As if monsters hadn’t been here longer than humans and would still be after humans were gone. You were one of the few he had seen have a proper reaction to what was essentially the execution site of many innocent souls, human  _ and  _ monster. The silence of the hall was always oppressing, heavy and thick, the weight of sins crawling on your back, every ounce of LoVe earned a lead weight on your soul. He watched as you stood tall but respectfully silent. “What… is this room?” Your voice was hushed but easily heard.

“The Judgement Hall.” He quietly padded up next to you, the opaqueness of the stained glass only letting in a blur of harsh golden light. You nodded and looked around a moment longer, pausing in the middle of the room you saw a deep groove slashed into the ground, as if a large knife or sword had been drug across it. You touched it softly, finding it unnaturally cold, you drew your fingers back and stood, eyeing what you assumed to be the exit, massive door parted slightly, murmured conversation drifting through. “C’mon, this place is depressing.” He shoved his hands back in his pockets and hunched over again, padding towards the open doors with trepidation. Mettaton was gonna skin his tail for being so behind, regardless of the reason, even if a human fell into the lava pit Anakin Skywalker style he would still be expected to be done on time.

You looked back one last time before following the frazzled cat through the massive ornate doors, the hall seemed to dim with shadows even with the cold light shining through the windows. You gave a shiver and followed through the doors into a throne room, golden flowers covered the mossy floor, the same stone floor from the hall continued here, peeking through the moss at regular intervals. The air was still tense in here but much less oppressive, felt more like shame. The light peeking through the windows here felt a bit more sunny and less harsh, you could faintly hear birdsong, though you couldn’t pinpoint it, the ceilings disappearing into darkness high above your small human form.

You saw BP off scolding some sullen teenagers who had ignored both signs and royal purple velvet rope asking them to please stay off the thrones. They didn’t look very sorry but thought better of arguing after seeing the slightly unhinged expression on the lean monster. He clapped his paws together to get everyone's attention, which honestly did a much better job than you thought it would, considering the plush fur covering them. “Thank you for your patience everyone, we have one last place to see and then that will be the end of our tour today, don’t forget to visit the gift shop!  _ Not that you have any choice not to _ .” He muttered that part softly as he turned towards the doors behind the thrones, leading the group out, a few tourists lingering hoping to get a few last photos. The last room you all came too was dark, you froze it was almost like the darkness from the doorway before Gaster’s room came into view.

Then you realized it was just the natural darkness of the underground after having been in the odd light of the palace it was a rough transition. You blinked a few times to get some of the rocky surroundings into view. You saw a circle of light a ways up a decently steep path, you assumed that was the exit to the surface, BP paused and held up a paw. Your group paused and the Cat monster spoke. “Long ago seven human mages were manipulated into trapping their friends, family, and innocent monsters and humans underground. Hatred had ruled the time, greedy human monarchs who refused to listen to reason sought to gain monster lands for themselves, but they lacked the ability to fight monsters on even footing. Human mages were few and far between at the time, human birth rates were abysmal due to prejudice against the healing magic of monsters. So, they  _ stole them _ . Mage children stolen in the night from their parents and raised to one day erect the barrier that trapped us all underground.” His voice echoes ominously throughout the cavern, the group was silent for once, even the teenagers who had been nothing but trouble stood listening intently. BP may sure hate his job, but the guy had stage presence.

“The magic was a dark magic, it used the very souls’ desires to power the barrier, each soul adding many years to the longevity of the barrier. Not all humans had agreed to the greedy king’s plan, most were infuriated, but those who tried to fight back… Well, anyway, the king had taken many years finding the exact spell he needed to trap us forever and he just happened to have the exact number of souls he needed. Any less than seven and the spell would eventually run out of power, but with one soul of each of the seven major human magics would ensure we would all perish.

“Finally the King had us backed into a corner, his brainwashed mages’ souls free from their bodies, all magics playing their scores harmonizing for the finale, but there was one missing. As each soul formed the barrier we could feel the air becoming thicker, a few of the boss monsters, including the king and queen, tried to halt the barrier but were deflected by the minor trait mages. The king could not figure out what the holdup was, the barrier should be a solid white, not the flashing mess of color before them. Through the battlefield from far off human mages and troops fell under a rain of blood red knives, the Determination trait child mage charged desperately through the field, hacking and slashing their way towards the barrier, much to the horror of the King and Queen of Monsters. The child stopped before them and started slamming their knives into the barely formed barrier, forming larger and larger bladed weapons even as the monsters and trapped humans begged the child to run they didn’t stop, even as they were pelted with magic and physical weapons.” The silence was thick in the crowd, no one even shifting a toe from here they all stood enraptured in the guide’s story.

“As the child’s soul left their body for the last time the human king roared in victory, surely he had won, all the souls would go to strengthening the barrier and he would have his land and riches, trapping monsters under the mountain, long after he turned to dust in his grave. However he forgot, he was dealing with a Determined soul, and Determined souls only do what Determined souls  _ want  _ to do. A massive miscalculation on the human king’s part, the soul flashed crimson and charged at the barrier. Monsters and humans alike watched as the soul forced its way inside the barrier and dug in, glowing brighter and brighter as the barrier dimmed to a faded silver, even less powerful than when just two souls had joined. The king had screamed in rage, the remaining few human mages under his control slaughtered and monsters still outside the barrier who couldn’t or wouldn’t run.

“In the end, the barrier still held and some saw the child’s sacrifice as meaningless, but it really wasn’t, in the end, that power, Determination, is what allowed Frisk to shatter the remains of the barrier, freeing us all. This, is where that all happened, our confinement and our freedom.” he silently turned and started the slow walk up the incline. Everyone stood transfixed a moment longer, that cat could tell a story when he tried. Everyone slowly looked around and carefully followed the guide up the path, most not realizing it wasn’t just monsters who had been trapped underground. At least no one stupidly asked why no humans had been underground when the barrier had been broken. You followed the group slowly, this room felt like forgiveness and hope. You smiled as you walked up the path, hopeful you would see Gaster again.

Gaster paused, hand frozen above the knob to the door, it was different than usual, the color was the same but the design of the door was different. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what lay beyond, surely it was more void. But what if it  _ wasn’t _ ? He wasn’t sure which answer scared him more.`He held his breath as he twisted the knob, it wouldn’t budge, he wasn’t sure whether he was relieved or disappointed. He released the knob and stepped back, the door naturally staying in place as most doors do. He decided to ignore it for now and get back to work.

Sitting at his desk he shuffled through his papers, trying to find the one he had been working on before you had shown up. He still didn’t understand how you were able to enter and exit the void so easily. Even those gifted with void magic like himself found it to be like walking on the ocean floor with a boulder in your arms, slow and oppressive, but you breezed through the passages unknowingly like you were taking a stroll down the street. Gaster himself didn’t have as hard of a time as some even before he became one with the void, it was more like treading thigh-high water, he could move faster but it was a bit messy and left ripples. Ripples attracted predators most would rather not meet, himself included, especially in his weakened state as he was. After his mishap he ended up with shards of the void splintered throughout his soul, giving it it’s shattered appearance. His soul was whole per se, he should know after all the years hes spent trying to figure out where he went wrong, the shards of void embedded in it keep him trapped in this space, the void likes to remain whole after all.

He sighed, uttery distracted since you left, your scent lingered throughout his room, his jaws parted slightly as he breathed deeply, your rich scent sticking to the back of his throat. There was no way he would be getting any work done anytime soon, he already caught himself turning towards the door you had exited through, which offered him another puzzle. Why was the door still there? They only existed when they had a purpose and as soon as you left it should have vanished in between blinks of his sockets. He had tried many ways to get the doors to stay, but even if he refused to blink or look away the door would not budge much like this one.

  
  
  


It was…  **v̶͍̈́e̶͎̎r̵͇͓̓ỷ̶̡̎ I̴̬̜͇͔͙̟̖͚̍̈̿͋̓͗̎̐̚͠ņ̴̛͕̬̟̲͈̝̞̬͓̠̯͖̈́̍̂̾̅̂͐̓̇̽̚̕͜ͅt̴̡̨̨̘̠̘͚̯͕̆̀̀̍͌͌̂͒̊̔̒̎͆̕ͅͅe̷̻̟̤͍̾̔̇̇̔̄͗͑̒̑̍͠r̶̡͈̻̝̣̘͚̘̃̌̚e̶̹͚̖̼̝͇̿̍̒͋̽̅́̉͝͝s̷̛̛̤̫̎̂ţ̴̭̯͍̬̰̺̣̌i̸̩̮͍̻͚̘̹̝͓̘͍̙͉͙̓́̒̾͌̓̏͊͛͆̌̐̚͘͠n̴̜̻̟̠̙̟͔̝̆̋͊̒̅͐̀̐̒͑̕̚g̶̢̨̧͙̣̱͔͉̯̗̠̭̙̼͐͒̓̐͊̆̅̎͒̈́̂̇̈́͊̚.**

  
  
  


Your eyes took a moment to adjust to the late afternoon sun glittering over the ridge of the hills in the distance. When they did your breath caught in your chest, it was  _ gorgeous _ , you went silent as you stopped near the edge of the outcropping. You could see all the way down to the city in the center of the natural valley, lights twinkling, holding the border of the dark forests at bay. “Nice view innit?” You turned your head towards BP who had another smoke in between him jaws. He exhaled a cloud of that same greenish smoke as he perched on a boulder nearby. You nodded mutely, sitting down at the edge to dangle your feet, the next plateau was ten feet below so you weren’t worried about falling. “Man, you’d think you had enough of hanging out near cliffs today, heh.” You snorted at his tasteless joke, gving him a hard side-eye, which honestly was a lot less intimidating than planned when your stomach gave a massive growl. The cat monster let out a wheezing laugh, punctuated by a cough, he tossed the butt on the gound and stomped it out, offering you a hand up. “My shift is about over, you wanna grab a bite to eat in town after I lock up?”

He easily pulled you to your feet, not sure why you were surprised, you knew monsters were insanely strong, even the children could lift at least their own weight. You almost didn’t want to let his paw go, it was just as soft as it looked, but again, creepy human alert. You dusted off your pants and followed the man around the side of the cave entrance where a well-worn path led down into a garishly painted shack, proclaiming it to be the ‘ _ MTT BRAND GIFTORIUM’ _ , the shack was precariously crammed on the ledge, impeding the exit path, forcing you to either jump to your death off the side of a mountain or enter the gift shop. BP watched the masses shuffle in the small shop, seemingly unaware a stiff breeze might send the whole thing off the cliff. You planned to walk straight through the rickety nightmare, most of the things being advertised seemingly having nothing to do with the tour and everything to do with Mettaton, the owner of the business. As you were about to enter the store, BP snagged your wrist and let the door shut heavily before he slapped a padlock on the outside. You looked at him concernedly for a moment. “Don’t worry, theres an employee exit.” You didn’t get creep vbes from the cat monster but this wasn’t looking too hot to be honest. What employee exit? There was just a fucking cliff unless it was back up the path somehwere.

He tugged your wrist and pulled you up the path a bit further before stepping between two boulders that camouflaged another dimly lit path that went inside a small tunnel-like cave that led around the obstructed path. It started off narrow but opened up some into a small room with a gate at each end, latched with a chain and padlock. He unlocked each, allowing you to pass through before locking it behind him, You popped out a bit down the path from the shop and waited out front with him while the tour group filtered out, weighed down by excessive amounts of MTT Brand Swag. They chattered animatedly between themselves as they passed you both by, giving the monster a friendly wave as they passed, heading down into the parking lot.

BP checked the store and let out the clerk, an odd, jellyfish-like monster with beady eyes and large lips named Jerry, you took an immediate dislike to him and decided to wait for BP by your car. He soon met you by your car, having changed out of his uniform into worn faded jeans and an olive green tee, it looked good against his coppery fur, the setting sun highlighting the golden tones in his fur. He pulled a pair of black aviator sunglasses from his pocket and slid them up his nose, the glasses having small clips to keep them on his face via his fur. “Hey, thanks for waiting, I know a place just up the road if you don’t mind monster food?” You shook your head, your wallet wouldn’t be happy for the rest of the week but you could eat sandwiches for a couple days.

“Sure, I can drive us over if you want?” He chuckled and shrugged, tucking his paws in the front pockets of his jeans, scuffing as paw against the ground. “Well, I don’t mind driving but, honestly my car is a dumpster fire on wheels.” He pointed across the lot in the back, dumpster fire was an understatement, poor thing looked like it needed to be taken out back and shot. You looked back at the cat monster in horror and he just shrugged sheepishly. “Hey, don’t judge, Mettaton pays us shit wages.” You held up your hands in non-judgement and unlocked the car.

“C’mon, I’m starving.” Your stomach took the que to growl again, making the monster bark out a laugh as he slid into your passenger seat. You huffed and follwoed suit, buckling in before starting the car. “Alright, where we goin?” BP slid the sunglasses back into the neck of his shirt as you pulled onto the forested road leading from the mountain.

“Its not too far from here, got some great burgers, fries, and drinks.” You nodded, sounded good to you, a good burger and fries was the way to your heart. You don’t drink often but maybe you’d have one, not often you went to a monster restaurant. As you come to the main road he directed you towards the monster part of town, a few moments later you entered the parking lot of the restaurant and stepped out, BP waited for you by the door and held it for you. You stepped inside and shivered at the delicious warmth, something about excessive heat always relaxed you which is why you were sad you hadn’t paid much attention to Hotland. Admittedly you had good reason to be distracted but still, it was the part of the tour you had really looked forward to.

BP took in your gobsmacked expression as you laid eyes on the bartender and snorted, a tall man made of golden red flames stood pouring a martini for a statuesque female dog monster who yipped her thanks and sauntered off back to a table full of other canine monsters. The fire elemental wore a crisp white long-sleeved button up shirt, rolled up his forearms to three-quarter sleeves. He wore a starched, dark royal blue pinstriped vest, neatly laid over ironed black slacks. The flames on his head gave the impression of wavy coiffed hair dancing in the wind. A pair of rectangle frameless glasses sat perched on his face, small differences in color or shape giving the impression of where his features lie. BP nudged you as you just stood staring in the doorway getting a few chuckles from patrons as you flushed in embarrassment. You both sat quietly near the left side of the bar on a pair of stools and the cat monster held up a friendly paw to the fire elemental who silently gilded over and paused in front of you bowing slightly, before looking up at you then returning to his full height, a bit shorter than Gaster but man was he tall.

_ “Hello, welcome to Grillby’s, I am Grillby, what can I get you?” _ And his voice fit him well, it was deep and rumbling like logs turning over in the fire. You absently rubbed your chest, the aching cold was gone and replaced by a burning warmth. You cleared your throat, “Hi- Uh, could I get a burger and fries, and maybe a glass of water for now? BP says you make a great burger and fries.” You were a bit flustered and spoke quickly, trying to fight down the flush on your face, Grillby smiled gently at the praise and bowed again, eyes flickering to your hand where it covered your sternum for a moment. “Oh sorry my chest has been feeling weird for a couple hours, don’t mind me.” He nodded and turned, taking your companions order before disappearing in the back. You saw flames erupt from under the door and raised your brows.

BP snickered from his spot next to you on his stool. “ _ Showoff. _ ” he muttered quietly, obviously not meaning for you to hear. “looks like you really  _ light his fire, _ kid.” You jumped at the deep voice from the stool next to you. A short skeleton monster clothed in a blue hoodie, plain white tee, black basketball shorts and pink… house slippers? Sat perched on the stool beside you, bottle of ketchup gripped firmly in his hand as he eyed you with a wide grin and a wink. He threw out a hand towards you for a shake. “nice ta meetcha kid, names sans, sans the skeleton, put er there, don’t ya know how to greet a new pal?” You blinked before putting your hand in his, something about this monster seemed familiar. Just as BP yelled “NO-” a loud PFBLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTT! Rang out through the resturant sending the patrons into a fit of laughter. You blinked again and saw a small whoopie cushion taped to his hand.

BP sighed heavily, “heh, gets em every time, never gets old.” Sans wiped a ‘tear’ from his socket and leaned his skull on his fist. “so, never seen grillbz get to  _ fired _ up before, come here often?” You shake your head and was about to reply when a plate was softly set in front of you. You smiled up at the fiery bartender and thanked him for the food he nodded and retreated to the back presumably to get BP’s food. He returned a moment later and set the plate down in front of your friend before picking up a glass or two along the bar and placing them in a bussing tray. You watched him work while you ate, having to concentrate on not making inappropriate noises, this was the best burger you had ever eaten, you would gladly eat sandwiches for most the month if you could just have one of these burgers as often as possible.

Sans left you alone while you ate, especially when the noises you made tinted his cheeks blue and caused Grillby to shift a bit uncomfortably in place, a deep red staining his face as he tried to ignore the sounds you made. It was hard, a pretty human woman like you didn’t wander into his restaurant often, it was too bad you came with BP, he saw the way the cat monster looked at you. He would be content if you just came and ate his food once in a while, and if you were dating the cat monster that would be almost as often as Sans. Hopefully you were better about paying your tab than the lazy skeleton though, he thought without venom, honestly he didn’t care if you paid he just liked watching you enjoy his food, there's very few people who enjoyed his food with such enthusiasm. Sans caught Grillby’s eye before looking over at you as you chewed your last bite of burger.

“so kid, you seein anyone?” You paused in your chewing and almost spit it out in surprise. You looked over at the skeleton next to you and raised a brow after glancing at BP who seemed to be following your train of thought. “Why, you interested, Bone-boy?” Sans sputtered and snorted before letting out a laugh. “heh, sorry kid, this old bag of bones aint good for no one, ‘specially not a pretty soul like yours heh. nah, just curious.” You looked at the skeleton skeptically and he started to sweat (?) before you responded, deciding to ignore the compliment.

“Nah, been a few years.” You shrugged absently and finished chewing your bite, following it with a swallow of water, not noticing the bartender hanging on to your every word, having been polishing the same glass for the past five minutes. “Something comes along, sure, but I’m not particularly intentionally looking, guess I’m leaving it up to fate.” You shrug again before looking back at Sans who was grinning like you just told him you paid his bar tab and then some. You narrowed your eyes, he looked suspicious, like he was plotting. He stood from his stool, you imagine he was about your height of 5’7 and casually strolled over to stand beside BP who’s expression mirrored yours. Glancing over you saw Gribby had narrowed his eyes and was watching the skeleton carefully.

“Hey kid, knock-knock.” You frowned slightly, “Uh. who’s there?” He winked at you and placed a hand on the cat monster’s shoulder who started to somehow visibly sweat, monster physiology is so weird. “Dishes.”

“Dishes who?” You barely finished your response when he and your companion popped from existence. You gasped and gaped at the almost empty stool, a small crumpled bar napkin was placed in the center of the stool, you carefully picked it up and noticed some writing on the opposite side.  “ ** _dishes fate._ ** ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now what could he mean?
> 
> ~*~
> 
> Hey guys! I'm mostly done moving but I will still be taking it easy from updating for a bit, I am soooooo tired. There will be updates, but they will either be shorter chapters or a bit longer between updates, lemme know what you think. (US)


	3. When Is A Door, Not A Door?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Didn't even pay his tab.

You gave the offending napkin a grunt of embarrassed annoyance as you crumpled it and tossed it on the bartop. Grillby casually scooped it up and snorted, cinders flying from his nose in amusement as he read the lazily scrawled punch line. “Can you get me a whiskey sour, please?” You said from where you face was planted next to your empty plate. You heard a deep chuckle and felt a heavy heat pass by as he scooped up your plate wordlessly and headed to the back. You sighed and scrunched your face in annoyance at the skeleton’s antics. _ Guy thinks hes a real fuckin’ comic- no, no way. _ You sat up as you heard the gentle _ clink _ of a glass being set on the bar next to you, pulling it closer you looked up at the bartender hesitantly.

“Grillby…” He seemed to raise a brow at you in question. “Is his name Sans as in _ Comic _ Sans?” A grin split his face, dazzling you for a moment before you scowled and started downing your drink. The bartender crackled as you scowled into your drink, he gave you a pitying look as he took your soon emptied glass and swiftly replaced it with a full one. You smiled at him gratefully. As you went to lift it from the bar your fingers brushed the fire elementals and the warmth in your chest became a small inferno, it wasn’t unpleasant, but it was sudden. He seemed to feel something too and pulled his fingers back in surprise. He looked at his sparking fingertips to your face and hummed, giving you a wink over his glasses and a heated grin as he sauntered down the bar. You gaped after the fire monster a moment and then quickly gulped your second drink, _ is it hot in here? _

BP growled at the shorter skeleton as they appeared in the parking lot of his job, next to his rust bucket. He tugged his shirt out of Sans’ grasp, fishing around in his pocket for pack and lighter. Sans chuckled at the frustrated cat monster. “So what the hell was that about you shitty bag of bones?” Smoke curled from between his fangs in a sneer as he regarded the skeleton who shoved his hands casually in the pockets of his sky blue sweatshirt. He leaned against a nearby flicking lamppost and shrugged, his right socket closing in a mocking wink. “those two got a spark, she's gotta good soul, grillbz deserves someone like her.” The cat monster sighed and regarded him a moment before speaking.

“You wanna know how long ago I met her?” Sans lazily trained his eyelights on the monster in mild interest from where he had his phalange extended towards a stray firefly. “This morning, she was a random human in my stupid tour group.” Sans’ brow furrowed in confusion, feeling like he knew you somehow, he figured maybe he met you once like a long time ago or you were someones’ cousin, “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, I get that same familiar feeling from her.” BP took another drag and exhaled, smoke spiraling into the dark of the sky. “She uh fell and hurt her ankle,” he looked guiltily to the side for not noticing she was missing for as long as he did. “Said she met someone down there, I didn’t know him but she said he was really nice, gave her some candy to fix her ankle.”

“what was his name? Tibia-honest, ‘m surprised you didn’t know em, bp.” BP nodded absently, looking down to the exit of the empty lot, where the miniscule light of the old lamps didn’t reach. He frowned as he tried to remember, everytime he thought he had it, it slipped away, oily and viscous. “Uh, it was and odd name, sec, I think it started with a ‘G’? I dunno, she said he was some sort of doctor and that he was old, like maybe Asgore old?” Sans whistled, he couldn’t really think of a monster that old unless… “not talkin about gerson, right?” BP was already shaking his head. “Nah, nah, she said this guy was real tall and dressed nice.” His eye sockets went dark as he thought, who else was tall, male, a doctor, name starts with a _ G- no. nonononononononono. _

Sweat gathered on his skull, eyelights tiny as Sans forced himself to ask, “did, uh, did she say what kinda monster he was?” BP paused and frowned, looking at Sans, connecting the dots at the same time. “Yeah a…. Skeleton monster.” The two silently stared at each other for a moment, _ there's no way she met paps down there, he was at one of those meetings with undyne today... _ “uh, well, i gotta get goin’, paps will be home soon, good seein’ ya, bp.” BP just nodded cautiously, Sans looked away and vanished. “What the fuuuuuuuuck.” The cat lit another smoke before harshly wrenching open the perpetually stuck door of his shit car and climbed inside, deciding to just head home for the night.

You scowled at the bartop, how the shit did you get left here alone, what the hell was with Sans kidnapping your companion, now you just looked like some sad human female, alone at the bar, a _ monster _ bar. Sure there were some humans around and no one looked bothered by your presence, some looked at you with sympathy others just curiosity. At least the bartender was cute. You saw some flames flare out of the corner of your eye and turned your head to see the bartender turned away from you staring intently at the wall of liquor bottles, seeming a bit flustered. “Ah, shit, said that outloud did I? Oh well, I’ll stand by it.” He seemed to glance at you carefully over his shoulder, a magenta glow across his face. You eyed the last of your drink and grinned when he slid you a water carefully, his long fingers caressing the glass, the length of his fingers and the way he used his hands reminded you of someone… You shrugged it off, sober you would hopefully remember. “Thanks, sorry they dumped me here.” You looked down, tracing a bead of condensation down the glass with your finger. At least you drove, probably a good thing the fire monster gave you some water, you really didn’t want to have to order an Uber for the very short drive home. You supposed you could probably walk fine, you’d be sober enough by then and the monster district was super safe, though (racist) humans tended to avoid it. “ _ You’re not pathetic. Sans is… _ ” You flushed, of course you said that part too, nothing worse that someone hearing raw self-criticism when not hidden in a clever joke. “ _ ... _ ** _Sans_ ** _ . _ ” He said his name the second time with such fond loathing, like a parent talking about a troublesome child, it caused you to snort, laughter peeling out of you loudly. You wiped some tears from your eyes as Grillby waited for you to finish, a small smile on his face. The longer you looked at and spoke with the fire elemental the easier it was to understand his deep crackling voice, reminisce of a forest fire, deep and rumbling but hard to distinguish from the other sounds from the bar. The more you spoke with him he seemed to remind you of someone you just couldn’t quite grasp- grasp? _ Gras- gas gasser, no… Gast- _ a monster tripped, gently jostling you from behind, knocking the name from your brain.

You leaned a bit far forward, already perched precariously on your stool, the more you drink the less you sat in chairs and more perched on them, leaning forward on your elbows, the surprise of the sudden forward movement added to the accidental push causing you to shove your drink over the counter, the glass smashing against the floor near Grillby’s feet, having gone ignored as he grabbed your arms to stop you going headfirst over the counter. You face was pressed gently into his chest, shielding you from the shards of glass. The bar was silent except for the faint music playing from the jukebox in the corner. The monster in question was of course, _ Jerry _. Everyone turned and glared at the monster, normally indifferent bartender included, Jerry knew he was banned from his bar. He tried to stammer an apology while you were pressed against the firm chest of the bartender who was glaring down the shorter monster. The other patrons looked away, Grillby rarely threw his weight around per se, but when he did… Well, you’d really have to piss him off.

You flushed, inhaling to ask him to put you down when his burnt hickory smell tickled your nose, causing you to sigh instead of actually speak. Grillby opened his mouth to actually tell off the ugly squid monster when he felt your cool breath whisper against his jaw, your body relaxing against him even in the awkward position he still had you tapped in. He stammered an apology to you as he helped you sit back in your stool, hands awkwardly fluttering around you, Jerry having scurried out the door under the watch of some very irritated looking dog monsters. You flushed, glad he seemed to not notice your weird smelling of his shirt and at the worried sparks flying off the pyre that was his hair, his brow wrinkled in concern. You giggled and patted his hand after he slid you a new glass of water to replace your shattered one. A small pulse of warmth surged up your arm and settled in your chest at the contact. “Thanks for the catch Hotstuff, really know how to sweep a girl off her feet.” _ Ugh, super smooth, well Gaster didn’t seem to mind. Wait, who? _ You let the thought go in favor of grinning at the small flush of the bartender’s face. He ran a hand through the flames at the top of his head with a chuckle, looking away a moment before giving you a wink, “ _ Anytime, gorgeous. _” Either your face was on fire or the flames he produced were casting a redder glow than usual, either way, you were flattered.

A few patrons around the bar exchanged pleasantly surprised glances and murmurs, Grillby never seemed to engage anyone except Sans, but well, like he said Sans was _ Sans _ , kinda hard to ignore the guy if he didn’t want to be ignored. Even more so that it was a _ human _ and he willing touched you, as one of the few monsters left alive who had fought in the war against the humans they figured he probably had a dislike or even hate for humans. He had seemed to avoid directly speaking with Frisk, almost like he didn’t trust them adding merit to their assumptions, but by the way he spoke with you made them all rethink their stances. I mean sure, they could ask, but how do you ask one of the oldest, strongest, _ boss monsters _ if he's basically a racist? Especially with how kind and helpful he’s been to everyone, always lending an ear or word of advice to all who spent time in his bar, whether they paid or not, it would be a real kick to the soul. The former guards Dogamy and Dogaressa cooed softly at the exchange between the bartender and the human female, “Awww, remember when we were two pups in love, Darling?” The female monster nuzzled her husband, “We still are two pups in love, Sweetness!” The two monsters smooched each other much to the annoyance of the rest of the group, though they were very used to the two monster’s constant PDA. The patrons slowly left the bartender and the human alone, figuring they would find everything out eventually, especially if Sans was meddling.

Grillby felt the tension slide from his shoulders as the former guards went back to their games and cups, he wasn’t sure why they had been staring but it made the space between his shoulder blades itch uncomfortably. He noted you checking your watch absently and sliding your empty water glass to his side of the bar which he took gently from your fingertips. You rummaged in your small bag a moment before pulling out a handful of golden coins, more than enough to pay for your tab, not that he was going to take your money anyway. You held them out to the fire monster, obviously trying to pay. He crossed his arms and gave you a cocked brow, it was easier to distinguish his features from the blinding fire that was his being the longer you talked with him, a lot of his expression was body language. You waited a moment longer as he stared you down, not budging from his relaxed spot on the other side of the counter, as if he could stand there all night and not take your G. You growled at his nonsense and set it down on the bar and turned away before he could try and shove it back into your hands. “Use it to pay off some of Sans’ tab if its too much still after mine and BP’s meals, but I’m paying you, you stubborn ball of hot air.” You heard a quiet chuckle behind you and the scrape of coins on the counter as he picked up each one carefully and set them gently in the old register on the wall with the liquor bottles. You smile to yourself, glancing back at the bartender with satisfaction as he made no further move to argue with you.

As you stood to leave, he stopped you, “_ Leaving? _ ” You turned and smiled, nodding, throwing your bag over your shoulder, it really was a small purse but you really didn’t like calling it that for some reason, maybe because then you would have to finally admit you were an adult. “Yeah, I’ll probably just walk, it's not too far from here, is it okay if I leave my car here? It's the green one, you can’t miss it.” Your eyes twinkled as you said that, reminding him vaguely of someone else whose eyes glittered when they thought they had said or done something clever, he could vaguely recall their height but his mind was fuzzy on the details, oh well, he was over a thousand years old, he was allowed to forget a person or two, though he was sure it would come to him eventually. Grillby seemed like he wanted to say something to you and you waited patiently. “ _ If you don’t mind waiting a bit longer, I’d be happy to take you home. _ ” You cocked a hip at him, still feeling a bit saucy from the well, sauce. “I bet you _ would _, Firefly.” He put his hands on his hips, giving you an exasperated look, honestly the guy earned every G you handed over for putting up with your lame ass. You giggled, his posture softening almost immediately, “Really though, I appreciate that, but I’m sure you’re busy…” Your protests died off as he walked calmly towards his front window and flipped the sign to ‘Closed’. Crossing his admittedly large arms over his broad chest, his whole posture said ‘try and argue’. You looked around the bar, noticing the sudden lack of noise, and patrons, seems the bar had emptied while you chatted with the bartender.

You jaw clicked shut audibly and you just sighed, going to grab your jacket and noting he already had it in his hands, holding it open for you. You paused, flushing slightly, turning to slip your arms through, feeling his warm hands brush the tops of your arms as he gently tugged it over your shoulders. Your scent slapped him in the face again as you flipped your hair out from underneath the back of your jacket, he felt his maw fill with lava-like magic, his sharp canine teeth itching to plant themselves in your fleshy neck, leaving behind his mark. He felt his fingers try to sharpen into claws, a bestial form he hadn’t seen in years, he even felt the telltale itch at two distinct points on his forehead, he blinked hard suddenly realizing he was subconsciously crowding you, lurking over you like a lion on a gazelle, or rather a lion on a _ lioness _ . He felt his soul cool in disgust at his behavior, he wasn’t like _ that _ anymore, he was a simple bar owner, he had everything he wanted, good food, bad laughs, great friends, and he was happy! ...Right?

Luckily you had been fiddling with the zip of your jacket and hadn’t noticed the suddenly hulking inferno elemental all but drooling down your neck, losing control of his magic like some little pyre going through their first heat. Though you wouldn’t know it, Grillby had an incredibly sensitive nose, he found most smells overpowering and unpleasant so he usually just burned any odors before they could reach his nose, but he could _ never _ burn your scent out of his nose, even if he wanted to, it was rich and decadent, though he was surprisingly having trouble actually placing the exact smell, but it was very… _ you _. His instincts were yelling for him to press you against him, getting as much of your scent on him as possible- oh, you were speaking to him. “So uh, yeah its most of a mile that way,” you pointed down the road leading away from town, stars glittering in the spaces where the streetlamps couldn’t reach.

He placed a gentle hand on your back, leading you down the steps as he locked the door behind you. He turned towards you and offered his elbow with a cheeky grin, you snorted and hesitated a moment before grabbing his arm and grinning up at him. He chuckled and led you down the street, listening to you as you talked about your trip underground. He frowned as you reached the part after you had tested your ankle for the second time and you faltered in your story, standing in your entryway, closing the door behind him absentmindedly. “Huh, uh I know I met someone down there, but I can't quite… That's really weird.” He noted you were absently rubbing your chest again, right above where your… soul...was… He saw the strain on your face, a small flash of color, no _ magic _ , flickered in your eyes as you tried to force the memory, the color intensifying and settling on a very familiar shade, _ Now where have I seen that color magic before _? You grit your teeth as you mentally clenched your teeth into the oily memory fighting to stay hidden in the corners of your mind, it wasn’t so much about remembering now, but more like every time you tried it slipped further away. You had a feeling this person was very important and someone you shouldn’t forget, you made them a promise, you didn’t always keep your promises, but you tried and you felt this one was very important. A flash of a skeletal hand, a hole bored cleanly through the palm caressing your cheek. Flinty iolite eyes flashing, then they were a softer, richer purple, eyes crinkling in the corner in laughter at something you said. His voice smoky and deep from disuse, making you shiver even now, the way his body felt pressed against you, the brush of his soft sweater on your cheek. And the way he looked at you, like you were the sun and he was taking his first trip to the surface.

Grillby pondered a moment as he studied you, your soul seemed to pulse in your chest, polluted color flashing dully between your bones under your skin, outside pulling your soul out himself he wouldn’t know what your trait was without Sans, the Judge. Though some insisted he should have been Sans the Jester, but having basically raised the skeleton as his own along with Papyrus after promising his old friend... Friend. That word didn’t sound quite right, and he did always have trouble remembering anything about the person he made the promise to, but he could remember the promise as if he had spoken the words moments ago. He startled as you let out a gasp, your eyes clearing back to their normal shade, muttering to yourself you hauled ass upstairs, digging through a desk drawer in what appeared to be a spare bedroom turned office. You yanked out a half torn sheet of scrap paper and a jumbo sharpie, it seemed you just grabbed the first two writing objects you could lay your hands on. He strode forward carefully, coming up behind you and silently peeking over your shoulder, wanting to speak your name but decided to not distract you. You drew a few odd symbols, spaced out like words and letters in a sentence.

The letters seemed to almost distort in front of his eyes, something about them tickled something in his mind, like he once knew how to read them. You fiddled with your phone, grunting annoyedly as you tapped something on the screen, looking between the screen and your scribbled symbols you grinned, picking up the rejected marker and scribbling a letter below each symbol, easily filling in repeated letters before dropping the marker and picking up the page with a satisfied smile. “I knew I would remember that name, not sure how I could forget a guy like him.” You chuckled, eyes sparkling, Grillby felt a small flame of jealousy lick at his soul. You turned towards the bartender suddenly, “Uh, sorry for running off like that I knew I wouldn’t remember it if I didn’t write it down, he used a LOT of this funny font for his notes, ha, I didn’t realize he shares his name with the font, that must be how that's what stuck in my head.” He cocked his head at you and gestured towards the paper. “Oh, right, so his name is Doctor Wingdings Gaster, I think he's pretty old for a monster, dunno if you know him, not calling you old or anything,” You continued to talk about him a bit more, looking down at the page before finally looking up to see Grillby standing there with a particular look on his face.

“Uh, Grillby?” His eyes were narrowed, looking at the letters you had scrawled across the page, his face screwed up in concentration. He finally blinked as you waved the paper in front of his face, a few wisps of fire dancing away from the general shape of his hair as he jerked his gazed back up to yours, realizing he was looming over you and crowding your space again. “ _ Sounds… Familiar. _ ” You nodded, he still had a not quite with us expression on his face but you decided to let it go, absentmindedly folding the paper in your hand into quarters and placing it back on your desk. You seemed to realize you had basically forced the poor man into your home and to listen to your crazy story, you probably hit your head and you’re lying at the bottom of that drop in Waterfall almost dead. You casually pinched the back of your hand and winced, _ Nope, I’m awake. So now not only am I breaking and entering I am now technically a kidnapper. _ Though looking over at the fire monster you were pretty sure he wouldn’t go anywhere he didn’t _ want _ to go, especially if it’s a lone human female harassing him.

“So uh, yeah, we sat and talked for a bit, he wanted to know about the surface.” Grillby cocked his head in a questioning manner. “Oh, yeah I thought it was odd too that he didn’t know but I asked BP and he thinks he might be one of those really old boss monsters, and maybe just lost track of time? He said sometimes the really old ones can sleep for years at a time so…” You trailed off and flushed realizing you were probably human-splaining monster biology to a damn monster that was most likely older than you. “Sorry, you know all this stuff of course, its new to me, didn’t have a lot of monsters where I’m from. I guess he met the ambassador once though? He said he remembered him, was surprised they actually managed to break the barrier.” You rubbed your arm absently, glancing around the bedroom-converted-office you were glad you had gone on a cleaning binge last weekend and there weren’t random scrap pages hanging from the lamps. Grillby tapped his chin with a finger, trying to sift through his vast catalogue of memories, the man you were describing was sounding more and more familiar as you spoke. He could almost see the ghost of a fixed grin, a crisp black lab coat fluttering in the icy breeze blowing through the door to his bar- and he zoned out again. He shook his head and gave you a sheepish smile.

“_ Sorry, was trying to remember. _ ” You smiled and nodded, fiddling with the ends of your hair, “So, sorry for making you walk me home and listen to my crazy story, sounds less real the more I talk about it.” You laughed awkwardly, still half-convinced you imagined the whole thing. He followed you back down the stairs, you still nervously twisting your hair in your fingers. He gently pulled your fingers away from your hair and smiled at you. “ _ I don’t think you’re crazy _ .” You flushed deeply at his warm tone. “Well, regardless, doubt you wanna hang out here all night- er, morning?” The clock on your wall reflected 3:32AM and you winced at the fire elemental. He just chuckled, giving your fingers a small squeeze before letting go, opening your front door. “ _ Can’t complain, definitely spent nights worse ways, _ ” He paused, turning back to you one last time. “ _ Not every day a pretty woman leads you right into her bedroom _.” You heard a deep rumbling laugh as the door closed on your flushed expression.

You stood staring at the door long after Grillby had left, flush slowly fading. Sure, he may be a man of few words, but when he does speak… The flush returned to your face as you finally reached forward to flip the deadbolt. You groaned as you walked into you kitchen, filling a glass with water and grabbing some painkillers from the familiar bottle in your cupboard. You were fine now, but knew you were gonna have one bitch of a headache tomorrow if you didn’t start the preemptive care now. Sitting down heavily in the dim light offered by the vent hood above your stove. You went over the day carefully in your mind as you finished your glass of water, you yawned and eyed the clock on the stove before setting your used glass in the sink and heading back upstairs, pulling off your layers as you went. You paused by the office, looking at the piece of paper sitting on the desk where you left it. You stepped into the room and grasped the paper, unfolding it to look at your hastily scribbled letters spelling out the doctor’s name. You could remember each detail of your impromptu visitation with the monster now, you scrubbed your eyes, likely smearing what was left of your eyeliner into a dark smudge. _ Why couldn’t I remember before? I mean no one's memory is _ ** _that_ ** _ bad. _ You made a face, suddenly recalling the numerous times you had completely forgotten a name after having just heard it. _ Okay, maybe not _ ** _super_ ** _ unusual, but I didn’t just forget his name… _ You gave yourself a mental shrug, no use thinking about it now, you remembered eventually, you’d think about it tomorrow, you were still too drunk for this. You placed the paper in your top drawer and left the room, walking to your bedroom door at the end of the hall. You tugged on a pair of your favorite sleep shorts and a black tank top, you scrubbed the smeared make up from your face with a couple wipes and wrestled your hair into a messy bun. You collapsed into bed with a huff, the room still slightly spinning from the lack of sleep and amount of alcohol consumed, your eyes finally slid shut and a moment later the quiet creak of a door opening whispered through the room.

Grillby closed the door to his bar gently, flipping the deadbolt he hummed, grabbing a rag from behind the counter to finish wiping down the tables. He paused halfway through, slumping into one of the booths, dim lamp above his head overpowered by the deep flush overtaking his face. He groaned and rubbed a hand across his face as he remembered your expression as the door swung shut. _ Why _ did he say that? He had acted like such a blithering _ fool _ around you, he was very unlike himself today, he was much too forward with you and owes you a sincere apology the next time he saw you, _ if _ he ever saw you again. His skull made a soft thunk and a whoosh of fire as he let it hit the table, arms dangling off the sides, rag still clutched in his left fist. You probably thought he was some creep with an ulterior motive, why did he insist on walking you home? He could have called you a Mettacar. His eyes went a bit soft around the edges as he remembered the way you spoke, you made even mundane stories like trips to the store seem interesting, and your _ laugh _ , he could listen to it all day. It would be quite the change from Sans’ constant puns and deep chuckle and the meandering chatter of the other interchangeable barflies. It was nice having a new <strike> pretty </strike> face around.

Sitting up he sighed, rubbing a small scorch mark from the table where he had exhaled in frustration. Regardless you probably wouldn’t want to want anything to do with him if you knew how old he really was, or _ what _ he really was. He finished the tables and stood by the stairs that lead up to his private apartment, giving one last glance around the bar he nodded and flicked off the lights, taking the short flight of stairs two steps at a time. Closing the door behind himself, he sighed and removed his shoes, his flames leaving a kaleidoscope of reds and yellows across the walls as he moved in the dark room. He removed his bow-tie and carefully folded it on his dresser, vest soon following but hung on a hanger for cleaning later. He removed the rest of his attire, slipping on some black pinstripe pajamas he slipped into bed, cool sheets quickly warming against his flames. He carefully removed his glasses and set them on his nightstand, the red numbers glowing 4:17am. He grunted and closed his eyes, quickly drifting off his flames banking to a slight ember as sleep overtook him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So I don't have much experience writing Grillby, hope he came out okay.
> 
> But if it sucked, thats cool too.
> 
> Hate Mail:  
UndynesSpear.tumblr.com


	4. When it's Ajar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _C̷̢̪̹̥̣̞̖̻̹̪͇͇̤̤͔̓r̵̭͑̐̀̓̇̈̏̇̈̄͌͝e̸̡͉̗͙̫̹̅͂̽͑́̈̊͝͝ĕ̷̡͎̦͉̺͙̣̺͂̈́̿͒̽͊͛̈̀͗̒̉͝ę̵̳͉̲̤̤̹̆͂̓̿̽̋̓̀͂̆͑̈́͝͝é̴̛̹͎͎̹̟͈͐̉͌̊̓̿̈́͒̉͜͝͝͝͝a̸̛͚̗̺̺͖̜̲̺͕̒̾̅͋̎͗k̸̘͕͈̤̗̲͛̒̌̍͐̈̃͐̑͆͝ͅ-̵̛̦̤͔͉̠̗̯̪̟͔̗̭̬̅̍̾̿̈́͊̅̌̈̀̀͜!̷̨̜̦̻̰̘͖͖͓͉̫̏͆̈́̅͒̍̐̀̾̆̈̑ _

Gaster paused in his mumblings as he scribbled on yet another sheet of paper, sketches of the fixed door, measurements, changes (no matter how small) had been meticulously recorded in his overly perfect handwriting, the familiar symbols flowing from his fountain pen as easily as any other letters. Something had distracted him, what was it? Not much in his silent purgatory he called his bedroom ever interested him anymore, the void was getting… monotonous. (I know, big shocker). Most would imagine the void to be endless, stretching out in every direction and dimension, and would be correct, but how much is there really to explore if none if it actually exists? No walls to reach, no floor to stand on, no sky to touch, except for his room and the beasts that hid from his senses it was empty. He was forgetting again, now what… He turned to look around his room, eyes alighting on the gray door you had disappeared into, his eyelights brightened as he remembered your smiling face and hummed, striding towards the door. He pressed a palm to the door gently, as if afraid it would suddenly vanish under his touch. A warm hum filled his soul and he looked down in surprise as a faint white glow sputtered from between his ribs like a dying star.

Jerking the collar of his sweater away from his neck, his teeth parted in wonder, his soul hadn’t moved in years and he had  _ never _ seen it light up like that in his whole life, even before his final trip into the void. Before he could study it in the mirror he saw it dim and still, he frowned, his excitement evaporating like a Moldsmall in Hotland. He looked back towards the door with a sigh before sitting back at his desk, shifting through the papers, his many free-floating hands bringing him various test tubes and papers, a few books, except his… clumsy hand. That abomination he swore had five left thumbs, it dropped  _ everything _ \-  _ THUNK! _ Gaster growled as a heavy tomb bashed him on the top of his skull, narrowly missing one of the cracks and landing in front of him, shattering beakers and ruining pages of work. He turned with a rage, narrowing his gaze on the mal-formed hand, spazzing awkwardly in the air seeming to notice his attention it zoomed off to crash in the corner, falling behind his bed. He sighed and another hand came by to rub his skull, he shouldn’t blame the poor thing, it was a part of him after all that was damaged by the void, though he did remember the fourth hand always being a bit more clumsy than the rest. He gave a mental shrug and turned back to the mess at hand.

Hands started carefully gathering glass and tossing it into a small metal bin to be tossed into the void for disposal later, another set of hands lifted the book carefully and another came with a rag to dab it clean. Worn gold script caught his attention and the hands instinctively brought the book closer, still cleaning it gently. He took the thick, worn tomb carefully and read the title with a snort. “The Dating Rulebook”. He flipped through it with a chuckle, the pages falling open to the chapter about knowing when you’ve met your soulmate. He chuckled again remembering a friend giving him a lecture with the book in hand.

_ “Oh come now, Gaster, it has a wider source of information than just romancing a partner!” Gaster had looked at the monster holding the book out to him and rolled his eyes, turning back to the scattered pages on his desk. “Don’t give me that you ol’ sick-in-the-mud, I’m serious! I thought you were one of those fancy “Men of Science”!” Gaster could feel the stare boring down on him from the other monster in the room, it wasn’t one of anger, but disappointment and everyone knows that stings the worst. _

_ _ _ He sighed heavily before dropping his shoulders and carefully setting down the pages on his desk, back into the chaos he turned towards his friend and King and smiled serenely. “You are correct My King, I apologize for not listening before, please what is the relevant information.” Asgore frowned at the tall monster and his insincere expression, everyone thought him a fool for all the kindness in his poor soul but he was very perceptive and knew when a close friend was full of it. He drew up his height, suddenly looking every ounce the king he was and thrust the book into the scientists’ ribs who caught it with an ‘oof’ and a startled expression. Asgore leaned down slightly, “Do not patronize me, Gaster, I may be your friend first, but I am still your  _ ** _king_ ** _ .” Gaster’s jaw clicked shut at the glint of crimson magic deep in the King’s eyes and bowed his head slightly in difference, holding the gilded book carefully.  _

_ _ _ Asgore gave him a heavy pat on the shoulder and pulled him into a large hug, Gaster wincing as his bones creaked in protest. “I love you, Uncle Dings, but sometimes you’re such a  _ ** _bonehead_ ** _ .” Gaster leveled the large goat monster with an unimpressed look as he guwaffed loudly, leaving the room humming a faint tune cheerily. Asgore’s impression of his son Asriel was almost creepily accurate. As the door swung closed he thumbed the gold-leafed cover and opened the book with a put-upon sigh, “ _ ** _Chapter One: So You Want A Datemate… sigh…_ ** _ .” It was going to be a long night. _

_ _ Turns out the book was  _ full  _ of helpful information, even if some was a bit dated by now. He was a bit ashamed of how he had reacted at the time, he often took Asgore’s kindness as naivety, his softer approach making him seem younger than the skeleton monster though he had him beat by ten years. He hummed, absently flipping through the pages landing on the chapter titled “ _ Chapter Fourteen: Soulmates.” _ He paused as his eyes snagged on the word  _ Soulmate _ , he trailed a finger down the page in curiosity, this had been one of the more useful passages, rife with information if you knew how to read between the lines. And sometimes the book was very pain with it’s wording, like multiple people had penned the book, each having their own forms of narration. He had to admit the tone usually fit the subject very well, each voice filling you with the confidence to get what you set out to do done. Too bad he never learned of the actual author(s), regardless, he would have liked to read more of their works, they had a very  _ interesting _ view on souls and romantic relationships. Honestly some of the chapters had made  _ him _ blush, they were very…  _ descriptive.  _ He cleared his throat and skimmed the page a bit less nonchalantly than before, a violet flush staining his cheekbones,  _ the feel of your soft frame pressed against his _ , the page beneath his finger almost tore. Lifting his finger he smoothed the spot carefully, pausing as a paragraph caught his eye.

“ _ ...you may find yourself constantly thinking of the person(s) when they’re not around, may even feel the absence of their presence in your Soul, it had been described as cold like a direct hit from an Ice Cap’s magic to the center of your Soul. When you see them again, or even sometimes think about them, don’t be embarrassed if your soul decides to show off a bit, it happens to everyone! Your Soul is just excited to see it’s counterpart(s) and wants to show it in the only way it knows how, by glowing like a tiny star in your chest and doing it’s best impression of a disco ball on fire! Due to monster/human physiology some may be more visible than others and that is okay! Ways you can…”  _ Gaster’s finger froze and he blinked slowly, he was generally a pretty well-spoken monster, having given many speeches and lectures, some rehearsed some were very impromptu and he had never had a lull in conversation or said something unintentionally. Many monsters, if they remembered him, would agree they had never heard the scientist at a loss for words or without an eloquent, charismatic response to any question, no matter how rude or awkward, he always came across confident and self-assured. He stared blankly at the wall across from him, book held limply in his hands, an electric buzz lighting up his body, he wasn’t sure if it was fear or elation. For the first time he wasn’t sure about anything, he had just met his Soulmate, and he may never see you again.

He sat in stunned silence, hands having disappeared in surprise, various beakers and books crashing to the ground behind him and he didn’t even flinch, eye sockets wide, form more solid than it had been in decades. He finally blinked and skimmed the rest of the chapter, nodding to himself, hands slowly appearing again to sweep up debris. He stood decisively and placed the book squarely on the desk, he turned and chuckled, pressing a hand to his chest, his soul fluttering under his hand as he looked at the door. He walked forward and pressed his hand against the door again, his soul heating under his hand, humming. His eyes alit with comprehension and grasped the doorknob carefully, holding his breath.  _ Click. _

The door easily swung open, revealing a familiar pitch blackness of the void and his soul dropped to the bottom of his ribs, until he saw the soft glow of moonlight through the crack in the window coverings revealing a decent-sized bedroom done in grays and blacks, the occasional teal or lime green accent peeking from the edges. The bed was small compared to his but appeared to be the right size for the adult human currently resting in it. He hesitated, almost convinced he was dreaming and the second he set foot over the threshold he would wake, trapped in that white room again without-. His hand squeezed the doorknob dangerously, he could hear the metal groaning under his ministrations and let it go as he saw you stir, and he knew it was you as the room was absolutely  _ soaked  _ in your scent, even with his poor sense of smell he could tell that much. You sighed and turned over, quickly falling back asleep, he released the breath he had been holding and cautiously took a step forward into your room.

As Gaster stood fully in your room he felt like he almost had to hunch with how low the ceilings were in comparison to the endless stretch of the void. Before he knew it he was towering over you as you slept, a small smile stretching across your face as you cuddled a pillow to the side of your face, legs gently tangled in the sheets as though tangled with the legs of a lover. Gaster had never been a jealous man, no woman having truly captivated him for him to care about such things, but he would be dusted if he denied being jealous of your pillow right now. Your hair shifted to the side, exposing your neck as you tilted your head further up on your pillow, the delicious strip of flesh exposed to him made him miss the slight glow at the front of your sternum as you twisted your torso more towards the mattress, your soul encouraging your sleeping body closer to the monster now a hair away from touching you.

He wanted to touch you so bad, feel your soft skin against his fingers again, your strangely warm hair, like spider’s silk cascading down your shoulders to rest at your waist, obvious hair-tie indentations adding to the waves instead of distracting. He hummed softly, sockets lidded as he watched you, eyes wandering back to your exposed neck and he felt something  _ dark _ in him growl, his jaws parted as he inhaled slightly, he rumbled happily at your calming scent but wait. There was something else… His gaze narrowed and he pressed his tongue to the side of your neck, his hands placed on either side of you, caging you in. It was faint, smoky, tasted like fire and… Gaster growled against your neck, he could feel his soul burning in response to another male having touched you and smelling like  _ that _ . Well, that wouldn’t do, he would just have to remove the offenders smell from your body and replace it, with his  _ own _ . 

_ A deep voice growled against your neck, breath so cold it burned, freezing the wet spots on your neck left there by a tingling tongue. You moaned softly and turned your neck more towards the mouth, you felt very sharp teeth press gently against your neck and you panted, hugging the bundle in your arms closer to you.  _ You felt the weight of someone very large settled over your legs, not quite pinning you but the presence was very obvious. You hummed, the fuzzy quality of your thoughts led you to believe you were most likely still asleep and you were very content to see how this dream plays out. It wasn’t often you lucid dreamed but when you did, you enjoyed every second.  _ You felt large hands placed on either side of your head as he leaned over you, smell of fine whiskey washing over you as you turned more into the press of his mouth on your neck, wishing for more contact. You whined as he chuckled against your skin, pressing his hips against you. _

**_“H̶̲̰͖̩͆̕ĕ̸̹̥̄̐̾l̶̯̣̓͋̃̊l̶͚͎͋͑͘ò̴̲̮͔͔͠,̵̛̜̤̌̀̒ ̷̯̈́͂m̸͉̮͇͐y̴͚͍̜͍͐̓̚ ̸̪͍̯̫́͝D̸̻̄̔͆̓e̷̢̻͉̝̒̈́a̴̲̱̋̊̅͜͝r̴̺̣͛͝,̷̯̂̓ ̸̡̯͎̜̄͊̈̇d̴̛͔͙͕i̶̙͇̤͂̌̑͜d̴̝͝ͅͅ ̶̢̻̰̘̾̀̓͊y̵̹̎͒ỏ̸̰̰̼͆̕͝ù̵̮̞̭̥ ̸͖͎̈́m̸̛̖̩̰̔̕i̶̠̓̄̈́s̷͓̮͕̏s̵̭̱͙͂͛̒̍͜ ̸̢̛̬͚m̷̢͓̩͂̚ẻ̶̝̥̞̉͘?̷̼̈́̒̿” _**_Your hands twitched around the pillow in your grasp, his voice was just as deep and rich as you remember, the static in his voice adding to the dark rumble. _You hummed and turned your body more in his direction, eyes still closed, your imagination doing most of the work, no need to wake up and ruin the illusion._ “Hmmm, in your dreams…” You felt his smile stretch at your rough response, your voice coming out more fogged with sleep than you planned, but it was a dream, who cares what dream Gaster thinks. _**_"̵̩̼̕Õ̸̳̠n̷̯̈́͝ḷ̸̨̒ẙ̸̡ ̵̳͗͌ḙ̵͕̉v̸̛̯̫e̴̮̦̚ȓ̴̜̰y̶̖̳̏ ̵̣̹͝n̵̞̍͝i̵̖̊g̵͚͛h̵̻̀͝t̷̼͂,̴̫̪̇̚ ̸̲̞D̷̘̣̈ẹ̴̰̇a̶̛̜͇r̶̮͓̆e̷̖͝s̶͔͍͆t̸͚̙͆.̶̡͛"̶̟̂_** You snorted, dream Gaster was much cheesier than the one you met underground, at least you had a vivid imagination, which you were very willing to put to work. Normally you would be a bit embarrassed to be having a dream like this about someone you just met, but hey, don’t look a gift skeleton monster in the mouth right?_ You finally opened your eyes to see him poised above you with lidded sockets, a dim violet glowing in the depths as he regarded you, gently carding his fingers through your hair. “Its only been a few hours, numbskull.” His smile spread as your eyes slid shut again. “_**_Hmm, you are quite entertaining when you think you’re dreaming._**_”_

_ _ Wait. What? Your eyes shot open fully, darting to the monster leaning over you, cheshire grin on his face. “I’m… shit.” You brought a hand up and rubbed your face. You were  _ awake _ . You didn’t even bother pinching yourself, no way could you conjure something quite  _ this _ bizarre. “So, I know I said you could visit, but…. Five in the morning?” He smiled, still running fingers through your hair. You had no idea how amazing it was that he was here, he did feel a little guilty now that he was released from the void he only wanted to lie here and touch you, but that was a normal thing to feel with a new soulmate bond. So pretty and small, he never thought he would have a mate, much less one so tiny, he was a very large monster, he was very aware, and in more ways than one. He hummed, his fingers now raking a bit along your scalp, the violet in his eyelights deepening slightly. You flushed, realizing just exactly  _ how _ he had been touching you and still was.

“**I apologize for being so forward, my Dear, you see, I never expected for my soulmate to literally walk in my front door.**” You blinked wide eyes up at the monster above you. _His what?_ “**Interesting fact, soulmate isn’t just a romantic term, they truly exist.** **Tell me, have you felt a coldness in your chest since you left my home.**” You nodded vaguely, getting caught up in his questioning. “**Hmm, did you find yourself looking for someone as if expecting them to be right beside you?**” You nodded again slowly, “**Tell me, my Dear, how do you feel now that I’m here?**” The glacial coldness in your chest was gone, replaced with a tingling coolness more like peppermint on your tongue, with an underlying warmth, slowly burning hotter where his bones were pressed to your skin. You opened your mouth to reply but flushed instead, choosing to look anywhere but his face. “**Ah where did all that fire go?**”

You looked up at him with annoyance, “Gonna go up the bottom of your pelvis in a moment, bone boy.” He laughed a deep belly laugh, head leaned back as his jaws parted, revealing the sharp points of his teeth. The way he had previously smiled and spoke had caused his lips to subtly cover the pointed edges of his teeth, they added an air of danger to the monster. Wiping a tear from his eye, he gave you a panty-melting grin and said, “ **Don’t threaten me with a good time, Dearest.** ” He gave you a devilish smirk as he gripped your hair and tilted your head back to look down into your eyes. He almost purred at the way your eyelids fluttered of their own accord, good, he wouldn’t have to be too gentle with you. Soon you would be screaming his name to the heavens and  _ stars _ he couldn’t wait to have you under him wanting,  _ begging _ for him to take you. Well, more than you were currently, though this was a pretty good place to start, your eyes trained on his face, pupils dilated in desire. Pressed this close to you there was no way, even with his poor sense of smell, he could miss the smell of your desire soaking those sinfully revealing shorts you were wearing, your nipples poking through the thin tank top you wore. His tongue clicked behind his teeth in anticipation of tasting your sweet skin again.

You placed a hand on his chest to hold him back, drawing much needed oxygen back into your lungs, this man knew how to play you like a piano. “Woah there Doctor Love, why don’t you back this up for the dumb humans present ignorant of what I’m assuming is kind of a monster thing.” Gaster huffed, almost looking like he was pouting but of course he was much too dignified for that. He sat back, back to running his fingers through your hair, gently detangling it. He almost seemed a bit doped-up to you, the way his eyelights were fuzzy and his speech was slipping a bit back into the static hum when you met him. “ **Hmm, well I have a very good book on the matter, but I can at least explain what it means. Well, the humans had a few things right, soulmates are the being(s) made for you, some have multiple partners but if a boss monster is involved, like myself, then there is usually a monogamous relationship as most boss monsters are too dominant to accept their partner dividing romantic attention or affection between them and another. I am not so barbaric, but I must admit I may be a bit unbearable for a while around other males. Instincts are where monsters and humans differ here, especially in such an unusual pairing as us.** ” You raised a brow, you knew what he was doing, subtly mentioning a relationship between you two to subconsciously plant the thought in your head. He pressed on, unbothered by your expression, “ **Monsters are civil creatures, but much like humans we were not always so, we had baser forms, things closer to the boogeyman stories about monsters humans came up with to scare their children. When it comes to our Soulmates, our very soul demands we connect with them in any and every way we can, and the more powerful the monster the stronger those urges are. Take myself for example, letting myself into your room and your bed without so much as a “Hello.” I am of course appalled by my actions, as a civilized monster of my standing this is quite inappropriate of me.** ” He frowned and leaned back, disentangling his fingers from your hair and you frowned to match him, the spot in your chest cooled unhappily at the loss of contact, as he went to pull his hand away and stand you grasped it impulsively and he paused, looking down at you curiously where you had his fingers trapped between yours.

“ **Though you must be pretty powerful yourself for that tiny thread of a bond to allow me to leave that place.** ” You looked up sharply from where you had been examining his hand. “Allow you to… You were  _ trapped _ in that room?!” You face screwed up in confusion, you had seen him enter from another door, which you admit could have just been another part of the building he was trapped in, and why didn’t he just leave with you when the door opened? “ **I can see the questions on your face, a long time ago I had an unfortunate accident in an experiment, messing with things I had no business even thinking about doing but there I was. The resulting implosion more or less sent me to the space between spaces, it is called The Void. Its is cold, dark, and empty, the only thing allowing me to survive that abrupt shift in my make up was the sheer power of my soul as a boss monster. If I had one speck less magic in my body than I did that that moment I would have been dusted across time and space, though I obviously did not come out unscathed. I did not always have these rugged scars,** ” he gestured to the cracks running from either socket with a cheesy wink, trying to remove the frown from your face as he explained himself. “So, how were you trapped exactly?” He slipped his hand gently from your grasp and tipped your chin up towards him.

“ **So curious, I’m getting there, Dearest, please humor an old man and his ramblings.** ” You rolled your eyes and stuck the tip of your tongue out at him in a childish manner. “ **Use it or lose it, my Dear.** ” He said with a sharp grin, sockets lidded, the deep violet light glowing steadily in the darkened room. “ **Now stop distracting me or I shall never finish this boorish tale.** ” You heaved a very put-upon sigh and waited. He chuckled, “ **from the implosion I had taken direct damage to my soul, pieces of the very void sharded into my soul, theoretically making me one with the void, and the void my Dear is a very selfish place, it doesn’t like giving up anything delivered into it, myself included.** ” He paused, allowing you to absorb the information before he continued, “ **There are very few times the void produces an exit to the correct timeline and it never lets me pass the doorway, most of my visitors come to me. If you can count a single human child and then an adult human woman as visitors.** ” Your head spun with all the information, and he considered  _ this  _ the basics? “ **In any case enough about that for now, that is probably quite the nugget of information I have given you to digest.** ” His hand had gone back to playing with the ends of your hair.

Your eyes finally snagged on what was previously the door to your closet, the wood was now a dove gray but otherwise the door looked normal. It looked exactly like the one you had seen on the side of that clifface underground. “So the void gave you a door to my room, because we’re soulmates?” You said flatly, he hummed, “ **Do not sound so excited, My Dear.** ” He deadpanned in response. You gently smacked him in the chest with the back of your hand, “Watch it, Skeletor, you technically just broke into my house.” He leveled you with a pointed look. “ **At least you said ** ** _I _ ** **could visit...** ” You flushed and looked away from him, he had a point. “Well, I didn’t climb into your bed while you were sleeping and start molesting you.” He gave you a sleazy grin, bringing your hand to his mouth, “ **Oh, you could jump my bones anytime you want, Dearest…** ” His tongue snaked from his mouth and made a lewd motion between your fingers, causing you to swallow hard. His eyelights smoldered like twin violet embers in his lidded sockets as his too-sharp teeth nipped at your fingertips.

You felt the apex of your thighs dampen further with arousal as he continued to assault your hand with his tongue and teeth. He worked his way down the palm of your hand to your wrist, forearm, shoulder, neck- You parted your thighs as he settled himself over you, leaving a sizeable mark on your neck from his attentions much to his satisfaction. His instincts urged him to break skin, to make it more permanent but he reasoned that was rushing things a bit. Though the rational part of his mind was quickly being browbeaten by the part drowning in your scent and the feel of your clothed core pressed hotly against his pelvis, causing magic to swirl around his pelvic bone in anticipation. You moaned and pressed your chest further into his hand as he thumbed a nipple through your top, he ground his hips against your core in response. You locked your legs around his hips and held him against you, feeling a large hardness there that had nothing to do with the fact he was a skeleton and everything to do with the fact he was a  _ male _ skeleton.  _ Holy shit, hes huge. _ You bit your lip and your eyelids fluttered in anticipation, you were going to be deliciously sore.

Gaster growled against your neck and pressed his hips against you firmly, tweaking your nipple between his rough fingertips. His other hand snaked back into your hair to pull you up towards him as he finally pressed his mouth to yours. You found the bone under your lips to be pliable and just a bit rough compared to the softness of human lips. You wrapped your arms up around his neck, right hand gently grasping the space where his skull met his vertebrae, left gripping his shoulder through his clothes. He nipped your bottom lip, demanding entrance and you grinned against his mouth before returning the bite, if a bit harder. He growled again playfully and tweaked your nipple as you felt a third hand gently rake bone fingers under the edge of your top, pulling it up slightly on its journey to your other breast. You moaned again and ground your hips against his and he pressed you harder into your mattress in response.

Gaster was pleased to have such a willing mate under him, you tasted so sweet to him, any touch you laid on him made his soul feel light as a feather. He didn’t realize how painfully cold the void had left him all these years until he felt the fiery warmth of your soul glowing under your delicate skin, burning behind the bones so similar yet so different from his own. He heard the click of a door opening behind him but refused to turn as his soul turned to lead in his chest, no, it couldn’t take this from him, it couldn’t  _ make _ him go back he  _ wouldn’t  _ go back he  _ can’t _ \- You squealed under him in pleasure as another pair of summoned hands reached under you and grasped your ass, hauling you against the large monster as he broke your kiss to savagely bite your neck. You panted as you felt him tongue the small wounds he made in your neck, you felt a rumble in his chest and he laid you down, quickly divesting you of what little clothes you had, an extra pair of his hands removing his jacket, sweater, and unbuckled his pants. He kissed his way down your body, sharp teeth and dexterous tongue playing with your nipples as you gasped at the icy sensation of his tongue.

His right hand ventured to the apex of your thighs and he groaned in satisfaction as your wetness coated his fingers with his careful exploration. You shamelessly let your thighs part with a moan as he found your soaked entrance. He carefully slid a slender finger inside you tight wetness, and about came undone as you clenched around him with a pleasured cry. Oh how you would feel stretched around his cock, magic pooled in his mouth in anticipation, he wondered absently if you would even be able to handle his knot during his heats. That thought made him add two more fingers to your clenching sex much to your surprised pleasure and his satisfaction. He nipped at your thighs with his sharp teeth causing you to jump before he pressed hsi cold mouth to your lower lips, still twisting and thrusting his fingers deep in your sex.

He heard your gasp and felt your small hands grasp his skull as he tasted you, his senses drowned and consumed with your aroused heat, he needed more. He tongued the small bud above your entrance and was rewarded with a pleased choking sound from you splayed under him. He repeated the motion and was rewarded with a thrust of your hips, which he promptly halted with a pair of summoned hands, much to your voiced annoyance. He chuckled against your clit and you gasped at the vibrations produced, weakly trying to lift your hips. You froze as you felt his sharp teeth press against you for a moment before rapidly flicking the tip of his icy tongue against your engorged bud, the fingers inside you mimicking the speed. You gasped and cried out his name, his only response was to press harder with his tongue and twisting his fingers until you saw stars, a white-hot orgasm ripping through you. He growled in satisfaction, greedily licking up any traces of your arousal.

You watched through blurry eyes as he rose back over you, eyelights glowing fuzzily in the dark, the same color as the large cock resting against your belly. You were a tiny bit concerned but mostly aroused at the sight, your thighs shifted against the sheets of your bed in want, still slick from Gaster’s ministrations. He took in the sight of you staring at his member with desire, he expected some hesitation but you gave off nothing but the scent of hot arousal. “ **Are you ready, Dearest? Please, if you are not ready I will stop, but I fear once we begin…** ” His eyelights raked your body as a starved expression crossed his face, causing your core to clench in anticipation. You might regret this later, you eyed the girth of his cock, but you were too fucking horny to care. You nodded readily and a predatory grin spread across his face, he gripped his member firmly, violet light spilling across the bones of his hand, shining clearly through the absent palms. He drug the tip slowly up and down your slit, coating it in your wetness, his expression becoming almost desperate as you parted your thighs further and whined.

You moaned loudly as he pressed the thick head of his arousal into your entrance, he felt even bigger than you expected, not quite as cold as his tongue, and you  _ loved it _ . Your thighs fell apart in lax pleasure as he pressed more of his length inside you, the texture firm but malleable, filling all the spaces inside you. It took Gaster all the willpower he had left to not hilt you in one go after feeling how hot and tight you were, pleasure and arousal were pouring off you in waves. He had been concerned at first you wouldn’t be able to accommodate him, but with that wrecked expression you had on your face they were swiftly assuaged and replaced with burning arousal. “ **Like it a bit rough, do you, Dear?** ” He punctuated the question with a firm thrust of his hips, causing you to gasp in pleasure at the sudden stretch. He thumbed your clit and you jerked under him moaning loudly, trying to press yourself down harder on his cock. He obliged you, wedging more of of himself inside you, bottoming out against your cervix. He groaned in pleasure, dragging himself out of you before thrusting home, slamming against your cervix. “Oh  _ fuck _ !” You cried as he increased his pace, hands pulling your hips against his savagely, the tips of his fingers biting into your soft flesh.

His teeth gripped the juncture between your neck and shoulder firmly as he started thrusting deep and hard, your walls clamping around him along with your thighs, your hands were pinned to the bed with one of his summoned ones while another palmed your breasts roughly. “ **Cum for me, Dearest, scream my n a m e.** ” Gaster’s voice dropping to a deep guttural growl as his teeth clamped down, popping cleanly through your skin sending shards of white-hot pleasure down your spine. You came hard around his thick cock, screaming his name, he grunted against your neck as he came, filling you with an icy rush, causing you to shiver under him as pleasant tingles drug out your mind-shattering orgasm. You whined as you felt his cock disappear from inside you and his teeth slide from your neck, tingling under the cooling touch of his tongue. You suddenly felt wiped, a spot in your chest radiating warmth and contentment, Gaster purred against you, releasing your hands and pulling you against him softly. You grimaced at the feeling of cum leaking from between your thighs, hoping that the birth control you were on was working well, it had been a long time since so impulsively sleeping with someone. At least it wasn’t disapointing, you mused as your eyes fought sleep, you weren’t sure about the whole soulmate thing, but at least you knew the sex was good  <strike> missing something </strike> .

Gaster listened quietly to your heartbeat in the silent room as you fell asleep in his arms, he stared shell-shocked at the wall in front of him. His face aflame with embarrassment as his mind turned over every moment from his opening the door to you snoring softly against his chest. In the void he had plenty of time to think about anything and everything, he had even entertained the fantasy of how he would woo his potential mate, flowers, dinner, a walk through Waterfall, no funny business until the third date. He was a gentleman after all, he glanced down at your bare skin, tracing a few bruise marks from his overzealous hands with a grimace, that plan was shot to hell. Of course he couldn’t touch anything without staining it. He lifted his hands from your body, you didn’t deserve a cursed being such as him darkening your life, look at how roughly he had treated you, so small and dainty. Fate had given him a mate and he treats you like a toy for his pleasure. His soul warmed as you whimpered at the loss of contact and wove your arms under his ribs with a sigh as he placed his hands over your back, pulling your comforter over you both. He wasn’t sure why you wanted to cuddle an old frozen bag of bones like him, but he would cherish it until you decided to move away, surely in the morning you would see what a horrible mistake you made and demand he leave, but for now he would allow himself this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasp* Gaster! You seducer-man you!
> 
> Thank you so much for all your support you guys, it really means a lot!
> 
> Hate Mail:  
UndynesSpear.tumblr.com


	5. Heart and Soul of the Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gasters can't have panic!
> 
> Gasters can have a little panic.

Grillby woke up… agitated. He frowned at himself in the mirror as he dressed for the morning, fingers fumbling awkwardly over the usually almost mechanical movements of tying his usual tie. His brow furrowed as he looked over the rest of his appearance, alighting immediately on his rumpled shirt; buttons misaligned, vest inside out and creased awkwardly as if he hadn’t ironed his whole outfit the night before as usual. He didn’t even bother looking down at his slacks, assuming they were just as sad-looking as the rest of the outfit. He sighed and sat heavily on the edge of his bed, rubbing his face with his hands, scrubbing them through the mess of tangled flames on top of his head. The flames that made up his body had fascinated humans when they came to the surface, he constantly dodged human hands gracefully as they tried to touch his flames or stars forbid  _ grab _ them. He winced, sure he could choose to become more of a gaseous being than magmatically solid, but it wasn’t worth the mental concentration it would take him to keep only certain portions of himself like his hands solid, not to mention his clothes would catch fire and fall to the ground.

He scrubbed his head harder as magenta tinged his cheekbones, sparks shooting off due to friction. His body felt… hot. He usually ran at a cool 102 F, otherwise he may melt or even burn some of his guests just by standing too close, but he felt much warmer than that and couldn’t seem to regulate his temperature. Something was making the flames crawl across his arms with anxiety and irritation, looking at the clock he squinted before sliding on his glasses, he hadn’t slept. There was still a few hours before he needed to finish his prep from last night, but he really needed a walk. Maybe the cool morning air would clear his head and calm his soul which seemed ready to leave out the door, with or without him. He gave his sorry appearance a sad glance and swiped a long, brown woolen coat, the length managing to sweep around mid-calf instead of above the knee human-made jackets, humans not used to beings as tall as monsters. He threw it around his shoulders along with a forest green plaid scarf. He didn’t feel the cold nearly as much as some other monsters and humans, but it was a convenient way to hide his dishevelled appearance from any curious early birds. Closing and locking the door behind him, he cautiously followed the tugging in his soul down the street.

You felt cold, no _freezing_, you shivered violently as you woke, blinking into the inky blackness. You frowned and rubbed your face with your hands- wait. How could you see your hands if it was so dark? You sat up in alarm, nothing but solid blackness beneath you, replacing the bedroom you knew you fell asleep in. You stood and looked around, nothing but black emptiness for as far as your puny human senses could gather. You almost called out, like every damn cliche there was) but heard a rumbling snarl in the not-so-distant distance and snapped your jaw shut. You looked around (totally not starting to panic), you hadn’t been afraid of the dark in years but this was a whole new level of dark- _advanced_ _darkness_. You held in a snort and the hysterical laughter to follow, it was a totally normal thing to joke when you’re standing in the middle of a goddamn- _...void._ You blinked and it took everything in you not to groan, that would make way too much sense. It didn’t take much for you to figure out where you were, you always were proud of how clever you could be, not that it seemed to do much for you at this moment. The real question was _why_.

You rubbed your arms, annoyed, you looked down at your outfit, the tanktop and shorts you wore to bed. That's it, after this you were sleeping in layers, damn the heatstroke, if you were going to start waking up in the void it was worth it. That is, if you figured out how to leave, you turned in place your feet not making a sound against the floor. You saw no walls, no ceiling, but heard plenty and it was really starting to freak you out. You couldn’t compare the noises to any living or inanimate thing you could conjure with your admittedly vast imagination. You gave yourself a careful pinch on your arm,  _ yep, not dreaming _ . Why couldn’t you just be dreaming? A particularly vicious snarl echoed closer off to your left and you head jerked towards the sound causing a twinge of icy pain to echo the one settling in your soul. You grunted and pressed a hand to your neck, flushing when you realized it was the bite Gaster had given you last night.

A cool throb tugged at the center of your chest, you rubbed the spot, it seemed to pull you away from the growling and you were happy to follow. “Gaster?” You called quietly, well, tried to call quietly. Your voice was like a thunderous boom in your ears and you flinched, noticing the growls had silenced.  _ That _ can't be good. Sure enough you heard something- or somethings- rumbling straight for you. Nothing was revealed to you in the ocean of blackness but you weren’t going to wait around for it. The breath in your lungs froze along with your soul as it tugged you insistently further away. You started sprinting, not your strong suit but holy shit whatever it was sounded huge, and  _ hungry _ . 

You ran for what felt like hours, lungs burning for air, legs sore and shaking but the clamouring behind you never seemed to stop, the rumbling only seeming to slowly get louder and closer. The soul in your chest was an icy anchor in your chest as you felt it spurring you on, the pulls getting more and more aggressive as time passed. You wondered absently if you were actually in hell, forever being chased by something that seems to only be growing closer as you barely stay one step ahead of it. Which of course was the perfect time for you to trip over  _ absolutely nothing _ . A small shriek left your chapped lips as you slammed into the inky darkness designed the floor. You groaned and clutched your nose gingerly, wiping a small amount of blood away, not broken luckily. You clawed your way to your feet only for your legs to give out, the undetermined amount of time you spent running had done a number on them. You made a desperate sound as the snarls screeched in your ears, looking back, your eyes were saucers, you almost couldn’t make sense of what you were seeing. A massive half-skeltal reptile breached the ‘floor’ of the void like a whale through the ocean, the floor shattered oddly silently as the creature let out a massive shriek when it caught sight of you. Sickly green eyelights glowed in the depths of its ravaged sockets, shattered pieces of void reflecting the light, strips of ragged mummified flesh hanging over its narrow, fishlike skull and jaws as viscous dark red liquid dripped from its skeletal jaws and many rows of stained teeth. It almost seemed to smile as its eyelights narrowed in on you, its movements predatory and slow as it clawed its way towards you with gangly limbs, almost seeming to not belong to the prehistoric rotting creature in front of you.

Your breath was caught in your throat as you mind still tried to make sense of the grotesque creature in front of you. You would  _ never _ call this thing a monster, monsters had never been so terrifying. Its eyes almost seemed to swirl, a toxic yellow glowing between poisonous green swirls, the rusty red liquid dripping from its maw in tar-like strands, silently falling to the floor. It was about fifty feet away when your brain started working again,  _ ruuuuuuuuuun _ . The brief halt and subsequent second dose of adrenaline did wonders for making your legs obey you. You yelped and started booking it, your soul almost being pulled from your chest as it yanked you away from the beast. A ground-shaking roar of displeasure followed as the beast registered its prey making a getaway. Your steps faltered as you heard the beast presumably crash beneath the surface of the floor like the breach of a skeletal whale, followed by an excited screech.  _ Holy shit, help help help- _ But obviously, nobody came.

Grillby closed the door to the bar a bit harder than he intended when he walked back through the door about an hour later. The cool morning air doing nothing to unfrazzle his head or calm his soul, it had pulled him back down the street to a familiar apartment, yours, all the way up to the door before he flushed and realized where he was. That was…  _ embarrassing _ , how awkward would that be if you had caught him blazing on your doorstep like some obsessive creep. He tugged at his already loose collar, strands of flames falling in his face from the top of his head. You seemed to have a kinder look on monsters and he would really hate to ruin something like that. He knew humans didn’t always feel that deep connection to another like monsters did, and usually it was only when they were soulmates with a monster did they understand. Though even that was a rare occurrence, what would be the odds of a human having a monster soulmate  _ and _ not outright rejecting it? Well, he was only a bartender but he knew the odds were abysmally low. He cleared his throat as his cheeks pinked, not that he should assume you would even want a monster  him for a soulmate in the first place. He was inferring an awful lot about you from the few hours you had spent together, most of which when he was on the clock and you were a  pretty customer.

He had to admit he hadn’t expected the icy shard of jealousy to lodge its way in his soul when you had talked about that other monster. He never thought himself the jealous type, not anymore, he sighed and rolled his shoulders, but it had also been years since anyone had grabbed his attention so thoroughly as you. He wasn’t a fool, ignoring obvious signs, but he also had to face the facts. He was old, stuck in his ways, what could you possibly find interesting about him? Could he even keep up with you? From what little time he had spent he could already see he would be staring at your back most of the time as you charged ahead in life. He wondered what kind of soul you had that drove you, so many traits would fit you so perfectly, but, he was biased. He sat heavily at the rarely used stool tucked behind his bar as he looked over the gleaming surfaces. He really owed Sans for getting the bar above the surface, he didn’t try to ask how, he knew Sans would evade the question as easily as he dodges work. He grunted and eyed the tubs of garnish he still needed to prepare, he wasn’t one to shirk his duties, especially when it came to his bar but something  someone kept drawing his attention towards the door, closed sign still flipped for another couple hours. He pointedly turned away from the strangely accusatory door and got to work.

Forty-five minutes later he frowned at the scorched pile of limes and the smoldering cutting board, knife in hand red hot. He sighed in frustration, clamping his jaw shut as a jet of flame escaped instead of the usual heated air. This… this was not working. Every tick of the clock on the wall seemed to drive his shoulders up around his head, something was really agitating him, every few moments his gaze would be dragged towards the front door. He gave up trying not to think about you ages ago, found he messed up more when he tried to force himself to focus. Which made sense, all of his prep was basically muscle memory, no thoughts needed so why the hell was he torching everything in the nearby vicinity? He tossed another batch of wasted ingredients into a bin, there were recipes that could have used  _ roasted _ ingredients but these were absolutely scorched. Grumbling he reached into the bin under the counter and started again, maybe third times the charm?

You don’t know how you kept dodging the fissures in the floor where the beast surfaced to try and snap at your ankles. Sound traveled oddly in the void, sometimes echoing and sometimes flat and muffled, the crack of the creature’s bone-finned tail on the glassy surface of the void was like nails on a chalkboard. Your face screwed up in distaste at the harsh sound. You grunted as your soul yanked you suddenly to the left and you heard the skittering of the beast’s claws on the floor as it whipped around to follow your sudden movement. You were about to give up honestly, you were  _ very _ out of shape, I mean of course you didn’t want to be torn to little frowny shreds by this  _ thing _ , but you were honestly running out of choices. It's not like you could  **FIGHT- ** _ Ping! _ Your soul exploded from your chest with a tug and swung your body to face the beast charging you.

***???**

***LV ???**

***HP: ???/???**

***ATK: 999 DEF:999**

***Thinks you look tasty.**

Your face paled, an encounter? You couldn’t survive this! And with matching horror you realized, this beast  _ was _ a monster. Encounters could only occur when a monster or magically inclined human were involved, so by process of elimination this  _ must _ be a monster. You looked over the beast who had halted thirty feet away when the encounter started, it honestly looked like some sort of awful failed experiment. Mottled, mismatched flesh of varying textures, extra or misplaced limbs, even its jaws seemed to come from two different monsters. You had never seen something so big, not even the king of monsters was so massive as this beast who stood over fifteen feet tall before you. It hissed through its grinning maw of stained needle-like teeth as it seemed to be waiting for you.  _ How polite _ . You thought bitterly as you frantically thought through your options, a menu appeared in front of you and you clicked through the options, not questioning much right now in your need to survive. 

***You**

***LV 1**

***HP: 100/100**

***ATK: 0 DEF: 0**

***Is sleeping with a sword under her pillow from now on.**

You snorted, of course that would be your flavor text, not very helpful. What should be concerning you is how you can find humor after seeing zero attack and defence. What the fuck were you supposed to do? You always did think it would be cool to be a character in a video game, but this, this was just unfair. This was like some cruel trick by the game devs, tossing a noob in the end game area, right in the boss’ lair, but there would be no respawn for you.

You looked around, hoping by some miracle there would be a weapon, you didn’t even care if it was some jank ass stick, it was better than your bare fists, which you were sure would do nothing against the hulking bone beast in front of you. The constant dripping of petrichor falling from its jaws like strings up rusty drool doing nothing to give you confidence. Its finned tail lashed from side to side like a cat as it waited impatiently to rip you limb from limb. Obviously you were going to prevent that to the best of your ability, but, yknow, is is gonna be tough. It growled in impatience as it saw you looking around, trying to stave off the inevitable, at least in it’s mind your fate was already sealed.

Your gaze finally caught on a shard of shattered void-floor. It was a decent size, small enough to wrap your hand around one end, with jagged spikes running up the sides like thorns. You grimaced and eyed the beast before bending down and snatching it off the ground, which happened to be a huge mistake as you felt the jagged obsidian-like surface cut your hand. You hissed through your teeth but didn’t drop your improvised blade, instead ripping the bottom hem of you tanktop and making a handle which started slowly staining red from the cuts on you hand. Your hand started to throb and sting viciously as you took up a defensive position.

The beast seemed to pause, then a cacophony of laughter rang in your ears, harsh and discordant, making your ears ring. You glared at the beast in front of you refusing to flinch, you never flinched when kids mocked you in school, why would you let a giant grotesque beast make you flinch? 

***Improvised Dagger equipped**

***ATK +10**

***When life gives you nothing, use nothing.**

Oh gross, was that a fucking pun? You were so not in the fucking mood right now, especially after seeing it only gave you ten attack. What the hell was that going to do against that thing? You didn’t have shit to defend yourself with, your feet getting cut on the smaller shards of void scattered across the ground. You could honestly say this isn’t how you ever imagined spending a morning, you hadn’t even had a moment to figure out why you were here. You winced and shook your foot, trying to shake out some of the shards, which was your second example of fighting a losing battle.

***FIGHT** ***ACT**

***ITEM** ***** **MERCY**

The mercy option was grayed out and unselectable, not that you figured it was much of an option to begin with. The beast could feel you coming to a decision and a hiss of noxious, rotted air escaped its jaws with a grin. Act did not offer you great options either; *Talk, *Submit, *Call for help. Talking really wasn’t going to do much, you definitely aren’t going to submit, spending eternity in this thing’s belly was not one of your life’s goals. Calling for help you didn’t think was going to be effective in the void. No one could hear you in here, Gaster was back in your room as far as you knew, who knows maybe he was the one who pulled you here.

Your lips twisted, that didn't seem like something he would do, but you weren't so naive to think you knew him well at all. " ** _What's wrong, human? Take your turn, then you will submit to me and let us become one._ ** ” Your posture dropped along with your expression with the bored tone the beast used. “You can eat my ass, you corpse pile.” It tilted its head as if to answer but you punctuated your sentence with a slashing motion of the dagger towards the beast, the fight option being selected in your frustration. You blinked as a crescent of light slashed towards the beast, cleanly slicing off its remaining horn. The beast paused before letting out a horrid screech, it slammed a large claw into the ground, eyes blazing. “ ** _You little WRETCH! I’ve never met such a disrespectful one such as you in my life!_ ** ” Rusty icor poured from the stump, splashing thickly down its face and neck. It dug deep furrows in the glassy surface of the void and hissed, small tears in the void appearing around it.  ** _“My turn you willful child, we shall teach you your place, and don’t think I won't enjoy it._ ** ” You swallowed thickly as your soul stood in front of you like the most fragile shield in the world, this was going to hurt.

Gaster awoke with some confusion, the ceiling was much too close and not the shade of blinding white he was used to, it seemed a bit off, the lighting much dimmer than usual and he actually felt rested. He blinked slowly and looked to the side to see warm yellow light peeking through the window coverings, a wispy shadow interrupting the light periodically in a casual manner, gently swaying, almost like… branches… He sat up abruptly and looked around the room, he wasn’t in the void he was here with… He looked down beside himself to see your form curled on your side in sleep, he swept your hair away from your face and smiled at your even breaths but it quickly turned to a frown as he saw the bite marks he left you. They… they didn’t look well. Sickly black tentacles of  his magic extended from each mark left by his teeth, it almost seemed to pulse with venom. You grunted in your sleep, soul flashing under your clothing and flesh along with your eyes beneath your lids as your brow furrowed. He watched as the tentacles seemed to recede before spreading twice as far as you whimpered in your sleep. What the hell had he done to you? He thought back to last night and his face rewashed of any color he had regained through the  _ partial  _ bond.

It had sent a barrage of random bullets in your direction, a chaotic mix of arrows, pellets, seeds, and water droplets had assaulted you, you had luckily dodged most, a few arrows changed direction and surprised you, clipping your soul as you were too slow to react. You hissed as your chest throbbed. “You hit like a whimsum!” The creature hissed in irritation as you took another slash at it, scoring the side of its ribs as its awkward limbs hindered it. It screeched and opened its gaping maw, multiple sets of jaws parting as a sickly green glow gathered deep in its rotting gullet, its claws dug in as a deep rumble caused the broken shards to rattle at your feet. “Oh shit.” Time seemed to slow as the jaws split down the center the green light a small sun at the back of the beasts throat as it prepared to fire it at you and your too tiny soul. You could feel the heat against your skin and then-

Your body was rejecting his magic, it was too tainted, he could see your magic trying to surround it like an infection in response. Gaster swallowed thickly, his soul felt like it was being torn apart for the second time, he knew better, he really did, and he still let the heat of the moment get the best of him. He was resigning a poor innocent woman to this, this will leave you with horrid scars if it doesn't outright kill you. He felt sick, his sins crawling on his back and wrapping around his emaciated soul, this was his karma, he would literally poison his soulmate with his love. He truly was too poisonous to love, his very soul toxic to the touch, even his soulmate was not immune, a partially completed bond wouldn’t normally be so vicious. 

Your soul yanked you to the side, the beam barely missing your arm. You grasped your chest with one hand, the other grasping the dagger which dug freshly into your hand in your terror. You stared wide-eyed off to the side a moment as the beast roared in anger, “ ** _Accept your fate, I see that you are not weak, quite commendable for a human._ ** ” It’s tail made aggressive slicing motions through the air in some awkward combination of a cat and a shark. “ ** _You only make this harder on yourself, I was willing to forgive you coming in here smelling like another male but then you fight me, why_ ** ?” You blinked in confusion at the beast.

How could he be so foolish, it was like that buffoon Alphys to make a mistake like this, not he. Gaster shook his head, he should have accounted for all the factors, he knew he hadn’t been thinking clearly but he knew better than to get wrapped up in emotion. You were human and less likely to be open with your feelings, especially after one night. He was not a whole monster, pieces of the shards of the very void itself were filling the missing spaces, poisoning his magic and therefore tainting the bond as it required an exchange of magic. You had no LoVe and he had…. Well. It made him, along with his prior Boss Monster and Royal title the dominant one magically, though you seemed to be holding your own for now even without the uncompleted second step of him ingesting some of your magic and he chalked that up to your human-ness. He felt a surge of pride as he watched the venom grow and pause, shadows flickering along your collarbone. Your lips turned down slightly and your brow twitched, Gaster eyed the shoulder opposite his bite. It would only need to be a small cut, hopefully your soul would sense his intent and accept him. It wasn’t something you could force, he would just have to hope a small piece of your soul would be willing to become part of his as he wanted one of the few remaining pieces of his wanted to become part of yours. He frowned, well, that is what it was supposed to be doing, intent was everything when it came to souls and it seems last night the emotions he so desperately tried to keep in check manifested in the most unfortunate of ways. He leaned forward and rested a small bone scalpel at the side of your neck.

You flinched as you felt a tiny sting at your neck and then a familiar soothing tingling coolness, you absently rubbed the area but the feeling seemed to persist. Something about it made it hard to concentrate on the beast in front of you who seemed to have frozen. It started looking around, confused, almost seeming to dismiss you, its bone spines clattering in agitation. You suddenly felt dizzy, and cold, much colder than you had been feeling, it had been getting worse but with all the movement you had somehow managed to ignore it. It was crawling up your legs, your hips- you jiggle your leg and some feeling came back, but the pins and needles were quickly returning. You grunted as it turned to warmth, starting ta your toes, that wasn’t good, why were you so cold? Was it the void? You looked down at the puddle of dark liquid glimmering by your feet, eyes blurry you blinked and it was gone- oh, that wasn’t good. You didn’t dare lift your foot to see the damage, it must be bad for there to have been that much blood, the void was draining you, and you could feel the beast’s gaze upon you.

It wasn’t working. Gaster was panicking, he was frozen in fear over your body, your temperature had started to drop rapidly, his part of the bond wasn’t important, it was your  _ other _ bond that was missing. Gaster stood and roared in anger at himself and the situation, slamming a fist through the wall like it was sand. He growled, his rational brain fighting with his instincts at how to proceed, he needed to find your other intended and  rip him to pieces get him here to help you. You skin was already fair but it was starting to gray, it crawling up your legs slowly, the tips of your fingers. He scraped a hand over the top of his skull, how was he supposed to find the other? He looked around your room, he had a scent to go off of, assuming you didn’t just let random males near you, but it wasn’t enough. It would take entirely too long for him to find a man who smells like wood smoke, especially since he had no idea if he was even lived nearby. Gaster didn’t even have any idea where he was besides the obvious, rifling through a few small drawers that looked to contain important documents led him to believe he was in a small town. The bills were hand addressed instead of printed like a larger company would do, this was good news, he next just needed to find some evidence of the man. Gaster released the accidentally crushed letter in his hand, hoping it wasn’t something too important. He inhaled slowly and exhaled just as slowly, acting irrationally will not help you.

After a few more minutes of looking through your things he surmised you hadn’t known this man long at all. It was a possibility you had even just met, that was… perfectly ideal. It would be easier to be the favored mate, he already had initiated the bond first- he shook his head, frustrated that the bond was already clouding his stupid monster brain. There wouldn’t be a bond if he couldn’t find the other male. He shifted a few papers on your desk and froze when his eyelights caught a familiar set of letters. He tugged a piece of paper free and was surprised to see his own name written in his dialect with a clearly unpracticed but confident hand, but what really drew his attention was the extremely small scorch mark in the corner. This was excellent, a magic signature he could follow no problem, skeleton monsters were rather gifted when it came to sensing magic and souls unlike the other species of monsters who relied on the usual five senses. Though he wasn’t so far gone to not realize the damage to his soul (the organ he uses to sense magic and souls) was damaged, therefore not as effective as it once was. He concentrated, holding his hand over the small scorch mark, violet magic sparked and gathered in the hole of his palm, it was worth a try.

Sans jerked awake as his brother shook him, “Sans, Wake Up.” Sans blinked the sleep from his eyes, arms still lax on the bed though his brother was holding the rest of his upper body off the bed by his tshirt, wads of the material gathered to pull him closer to his brother’s face. “SOMETHING IS WRONG.” Ah, he thought his brother had been a bit quiet, turns out he had just been that deep in the pillows. “sup, bro? get a  _ grip _ will ya?” His brother screamed and shook him so hard he swore he felt his skull spin around. “c’mon paps, it's not like you to be so  _ rattled _ .” Papyrus gripped his skull firmly and fully covered his mouth. “SANS SHUT UP.” Sans’ sockets widened in surprise, pupils pinpricks. “I Am Sorry Brother, I Seriously Feel Something Wrong. I Feel A Human Soul.” Sans patted his brother’s arm sadly to let him go. This wasn’t the first time Papyrus had woken him up like this in a panic, years of diligently using his Soul Sense underground had left Papyrus hardwired to react the second he senses one, and his range was massive. Once on the surface Papyrus had trouble sleeping, he was used to being on full alert, senses stretched to almost every corner of the underground, senses dulled to familiar presence so it was fairly quiet for him. However the surface was a whole new beast, there were a lot more humans on the surface of course, therefore racism, speciesism, whatever you want to call it was an unfortunate regular occurrence and therefore violence… and death… 

His brother felt the souls shatter on a metaphysical level, it had worn him down, Sans had come home from work one day to find his brother a wrecked and sobbing mess. A hospital had burnt down in the next town over, it wasn’t an accident, so many innocent souls were crushed. After that he had taken his brother to the king and queen, begging for a solution, what they came up with, wasn’t ideal, but it was what was best. They were sent back underground so Papyrus could relearn how to close himself off from the stimuli. It had taken longer than either brother had liked, especially Papyrus. Sans had been disappointed for his brother, he hadn’t cared how long it took, just that Papyrus took all the time he needed. Papyrus however was angry and impatient. He was angry at how pathetic he was, couldn’t  _ stop _ doing magic, that was usually the opposite problem. This had never been a problem before, quite the opposite, with every increase in his magic pool the wider his senses could stretch and  _ did _ stretch. No one questioned when he consumed massive amounts of food compared to Sans’ meager meals. The magic he was pushing out required massive amounts of fuel, but everyone just saw a large skeleton monster so it made sense for him to need more food. He finally found the best way to control his sense was to focus on one person close to him to limit the range. It wasn’t the best fix, but it worked well most days, but when he slept, well, he couldn’t really control his magic.

“wha’s wrong with it, bro? did another human fall down?” Sans was wiping the sleep from his eyes, noticing the sparkling orange tears gathering in his sockets. “NO SANS, THIS ONE CAN STILL BE SAVED. I NEED YOUR HELP, I KEEP TRYING TO ASK IT WHERE IT IS, BUT IT WONT RESPOND SANS, THEY ALWAYS RESPOND!” Sans sat up, “well, ya can’t make a soul do anythin’ it doesn’t wanna do, bro. ‘specially a human one.” Papyrus was already shaking his head. “JUST TRY, PLEASE?” Sans sighed and rubbed his skull, it wouldn’t hurt, who knows, maybe someone did need some help but didn’t know how to ask. Wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before, not that he could have done anything about it then either. Concentrating, he frowned, that couldn’t be right, wasn’t that human the one from Grillby’s? Papyrus nodded in satisfaction at the troubled look on Sans’ face, “SEE! IT WILL NOT TELL ME WHERE IT IS BUT I CAN TELL IT IS NOT FAR.” The soul Sans sensed hovering over the other, draining the life from it is what made his sockets go dark. “i’ll be right back bro, i’ll take care of it.” A moment later Sans vanished from bed, leaving a worried Papyrus behind.

Sans appeared at the front door just as Gaster was working his way out, paper grasped in hand, looking much worse for wear. He paused at the shorter skeleton before him in the doorway of his mate’s home, appearing with dark sockets. Gaster swallowed thickly, he would recognize that faded blue jacket anywhere. “Sa-” He grunted as a bone slammed him in the stomach. “how did you crawl out of that hole?” He tried to look up but another bone came and threw him to his knees. “why her? why  _ now _ ?” each question was punctuated with a whack of a bone on his body. Gaster silently bore it, covering only his skull, letting Sans break bone after bone over his body. Sans finally slowed and stopped with huge puffs of breath before Gaster stood, brushing off the splinters, completely physically unaffected by the abuse. Sans’ face darkened further, it was the same as always, he could never leave a scratch on him. Sans choked as he was lifted by his throat to level with burning violet eyelights.

“ **My mate is dying, Sans, you can vent your grievances on me later. I need to find the owner of this magic** .” Gaster shoved the paper into the choking skeleton’s face. Sans’ watering sockets focused on the paper, particularly the scorch mark on the edge. Oh, Sans knew that magic well, but he needed to know why  _ he _ needed that particular person. He pried Gaster’s hand off his neck and dropped to the floor, rubbing the bruises left by the tight grip. Yeah, fun fact, bones can bruise. “what do ya want with ‘em?” Gaster slowly closed his sockets for patience, he did not have time for the usual five-million questions Sans usually pestered him with. Some things truly did not change, no matter how much time had passed. “ **I do not have time for this, Sans, she will perish if I do not find her other mate** .” Gaster looked to the side, “ **I am… I am too damaged to support the bond on my own. It was foolish of me to even consider- I- I should have controlled myself-** ” Sans watched with an odd mix of horror and fascination as before his eyes Gaster started to melt and stammer, very unlike the scientist he was familiar with. That man was cold and collected, all about answers and numbers, not emotion and vulnerability. Maybe time really did change people. Sans had been sure he was dead, but apparently not, he did look different from before. About the same height, but he didn’t stand as tall or proud, his sweater and coat were rumpled along with his slacks, like he had slept in them. The cracks in his skull were a new addition, along with a slight droop to his right eye which all seemed to be permanent new features instead of a physical demonstration of his current mood like the dripping seemed to be.

“...lemme see her first. how bad is it?” Gaster opened his mouth to respond but Sans disappeared in a smattering of blue magic particles. He looked at the closet door with a grimace, he had developed it seemed a bit of entamaphobia, it had taken him ten minutes just to have a summoned hand open the door to your room so he could find your other mate. He decided it was best to just wait here, he couldn’t waste that kind of time and there was no way he would actually be able to Take a Walk through the void, the very thought made him ill and shake in the hands. “shit ‘dings, you’re killing her! humans aint supposed to get that cold or lose that much magic!” Sans groaned and rubbed his skull, “man, she’s really gonna hate me later for this one.” Grabbing Gaster by the arm he vanished with him before he could let out a shout of alarm.

Grillby started in alarm at the pair of monsters who appeared in front of him just as he was about to turn the closed sign to open. Sans steadied Gaster as he doubled over gasping in rapid breaths, he could feel the teeth- ripping, shredding, the claws, the eyes- warmth. He raised his head, it was  _ him _ , how, how did he not recognize that magic? How did he forget his own best friend. Sans watched in shock as Grillby pulled Gaster up into his arms, Gaster clawing at him and mumbling between gasps. Grillby sat back in surprise and shock. “ _ Are- are you serious? _ ” Gaster nodded, Grillby ran a harried hand through the flames on top of his head, “ _ Knew I shouldn’t have left. _ ” What little form Gaster had regained reduced back into thick black ooze. “ _ Well? Take me to her you fools! _ ” Agitated flames sparked from the elemental’s head. “ _ Wingdings do pull yourself together, that will not help her. _ ” The skeleton pulled himself up off the floor with a great degree of embarrassment. The last time he had seen Grillby had been the morning before he was scattered across the void, and they had a fight. It wasn’t unusual, they had fights and disagreements before, it's what made the conversations interesting. This fight however was rather explosive on both accounts, they both had gone too far, said things you can’t really take back. Gaster had instantly regretted it all the moment he had strode out the door, but his stupid pride had made him continue on with his day instead of apologizing. He had many years to regret his decision.

Grillby was in shock, he was back, he couldn’t believe it, he had waited many years to apologize, how could he forget? He shook his head, he could figure this out later, if he didn’t act, you would die, and it would be all his fault. He groaned internally, Wingdings would never forgive him if that were the case. He felt Sans grip his sleeve and then his bar vanished, replaced by your bedroom, your sleeping form lying tucked in. He strode forward and frowned, inhaling deeply, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl as he smelled sex, magic and a scent that wasn’t his own drenching your body. He closed his eyes hard and refocused, your magic was being swallowed by the bond, it sensing the emaciated condition of one of it’s partnered souls so your soul was trying to help repair it. Your soul was strong, but it looked like you had been trying all night and failing. Your skin was graying, a sign of magic deprivation, and he doubted you had much to begin with. Gaster should not have initiated the bond, Grillby understood what most likely happened, but still. “ _ Sans, get out. _ ” Sans shifted his weight, eyeing Gaster with suspicion who was hovering over Grillby as he examined you. Sans didn’t really have an attachment to you personally, he tried to avoid all that business with humans, couldn’t trust them, no matter how pure their souls seemed. He did however, care deeply for Grillby, and you were his mate, even if that sorry excuse for a skeleton was part of the deal. Sans really would have to find out how Gaster managed to escape the void. “ ** _Sans._ ** ” Sans jumped at the growl leaving Grillby’s mouth, well, he would find out later. Grillby laid a hand against your cheek and your flesh shuddered against his touch, body moving closer to his warmth and magic. Unlike Gaster, he was not an emaciated skeleton monster and had the magic to spare.

The beast was laid down next to your shuddering body, it almost sounded regretful, “ _ **It is unfortunate that our time is coming to an end,** _ ” You just shivered against its chest and forelegs, thoughts drifted away like sand under the crush of ocean waves. “ ** _Just go to sleep, human, it will be over soon._ ** ” Something about that didn’t sound right, but your body was so heavy, even breathing seemed like a chore, you had never been so tired, or dizzy, or cold….. “ ** _That's it, just... give… in..._ ** ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thank you so much for all the kind words and support! Sorry I have been gone so long but I would never want to give you guys a shit, half-assed chapter, just for the sake up updating. Just the regular shit chapter you all expect!  
Work has been tough, a lot has happened, I'm trying to get a few chapters ahead in everything so the updates can be a bit more regular, but i just got word that another person has quit at the ER where I work so i may not be having much time to write. I figured I should at least make myself sit down and finish this one for all of you who have been so patient. Thanks everyone for reading!
> 
> You guys are seriously the best!
> 
> UndynesSpear.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> I love you
> 
> Join me at my really cool dump:  
UndynesSpear.tumblr.com


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